Trump arrives for Erie, Pennsylvania, rally under pressure

Former President Donald Trump will hold a rally on Saturday in Erie, Pennsylvania, a critical swing state in the 2024 presidential election, amid speculation that he could be indicted for the third time in the coming weeks.

Trump, who is running in the Republican presidential primary, is expected to deliver remarks at the Erie Insurance Arena at 6 p.m. ET. in the western Pennsylvania city that helped propel him to victory during the 2016 election. Trump’s previous rallies in Erie attracted thousands of his supporters, but Saturday’s event comes amid his ongoing legal battles.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Thursday that the former president will be facing additional federal charges in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 charges, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, in June after federal prosecutors indicted him for allegedly illegally removing classified documents, at least one of which dealt with U.S. military plans, when vacating the White House in January 2021 and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.

Now, Trump will also be facing new charges of obstructing justice, according to court documents filed Thursday. These charges stem from the DOJ’s accusations that Trump allegedly attempted to delete security footage at Mar-a-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Florida, amid the investigation last summer.

Trump has maintained his innocence in the case, arguing that the files were not classified and that prosecutors are engaging in a politically-motivated investigation aimed at weakening his stance amid the 2024 election.

The classified documents case is not the only legal investigation that has generated pressure for the Trump campaign.

DOJ special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Trump cases, allegedly wrote in a letter to Trump earlier in July that he is a target of the probe into the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol building, when a mob of Trump supporters, allegedly motivated by his unfounded election fraud claims, violently protested the 2020 presidential election results in a failed effort to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

“Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment,” Trump wrote in a July 18 Truth Social post.

Furthermore, Trump was also indicted in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into an alleged hush money payment made during his 2016 campaign earlier this year, and speculation has grown that he could face an indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis’ case into January 6, as well.

Trump has also maintained his innocence in these cases. He has said he did nothing wrong on January 6, and that he did not make an illegal payment during his 2016 campaign.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment via email.

Trump Remains 2024 GOP Frontrunner

Despite several ongoing legal battles, Trump arrives to the Erie rally as the frontrunner to win the 2024 GOP presidential primary. He remains popular among the GOP electorate as the anti-Trump vote splits its support between several candidates, with his top rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis facing campaign challenges in recent weeks.

A YouGov/The Economist poll conducted among 1,500 adults from July 22 to 25 found that 55 percent of respondents planned to vote for Trump in the 2024 primary. DeSantis, long viewed as the candidate with the greatest chance of beating him, only received support from 18 percent of voters, while other candidates polled in the single digits. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Pennsylvania has emerged as a critical battleground state in recent election cycles and is expected to be one of the few states that decide the results of the 2024 election. Trump won the state by 0.7 percentage points in 2016, becoming the first Republican to win it on a presidential level since the 1980s. However, the state drifted back to Biden in 2020 when he carried it by 1.2 points.