Trump has arrived at the federal courthouse in Washington to surrender to authorities on charges that he plotted to overturn his 2020 defeat in the presidential election.

Trump’s motorcade made its way through DC’s crowded streets, using lights and sirens — a journey documented in wall-to-wall cable coverage once again — and onlookers flanked the streets as the former president arrived at the courthouse.

The early front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will appear before a magistrate judge on charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States. The courthouse sits within sight of the US Capitol that his supporters attacked on January 6, 2021, to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

It’s the third criminal case filed against Trump this year, but the first to try to hold him criminally responsible for his efforts to cling to power in the weeks between his election loss and the Capitol attack that stunned the world as it unfolded live on TV.

Trump has said he did nothing wrong and has accused special counsel Jack Smith of trying to thwart his chances of returning to the White House in 2024.

Before taking off, Trump took to social media to again criticise the case as politically motivated and repeat his baseless claim that the 2020 election was “crooked.”