Herndon-Reston Indivisible Calls For 'J-U-S-T-I-C-E' Outside Trump's Court Hearing

HERNDON, VA — When former President Donald Trump arrived at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to face charges of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he was greeted by a mix of supporters and detractors.

Among those demonstrators were members of Herndon-Reston Indivisible, wearing bright yellow shirts holding up the letters "J-U-S-T-I-C-E." The group had come out to take part in the "No One is Above the Law" Rally, which was organized by Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.

Joanne Collins, one of Herndon-Reston Indivisible's organizers, told Patch on Friday morning that her group had been planning to protest at the courthouse since March.

"Once Donald Trump got indicted for election interference or elections crimes, we would then mobilize and join in a rally in D.C. with Public Citizen, which we did," she said.

The former president appeared before a magistrate judge in Washington’s federal courthouse two days after being indicted by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, according to the Associated Press.

"There were people who were pro-Trump and then there were people who were anti-Trump," Collins said. "I'd have to say it was pretty evenly split. The press probably outnumbered everybody. There was a ton of press down there."

Formed in 2017 in response to Trump's election, HRI has appeared at many rallies and political events in the D.C. area since then. The majority of its members live in Virginia Congressional Districts 10 and 11.

HRI advocates in favor of progressive issues, such as women's rights and gun violence prevention. Collins, Anne Alston, Carrie Bruns, and Heidi Zollo are the group's core leaders.

"In the beginning [the focus] was to elect Democrats into office and we originally had issue groups that would push back against different things within the Trump administration," Collins said.

After Trump met with Russian President Vladmir Putin in June 2018, HCI mobilized to protest daily outside the White House for nearly a year, holding up letters to spell out different words or slogans.

"We had 'T-R-E-A-S-O-N.' We had 'L-I-A-R.' Whatever was appropriate to the weeks that we were in," Collins said.

Of the three criminal cases Trump is facing, the most recent charges are especially historic since they focus on his efforts as president to subvert the will of voters and obstruct the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

Prosecutors said Trump's refusal to accept defeat and his lies about widespread election fraud helped fuel the violent riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

"Herndon-Reston Indivisible has definitely spent our time knowing that the democracy was fragile and defending democracy," Collins said. "That's what we saw, what we were doing all these years. It's what we continue to do."

After listening to the charges levied against him on Thursday, Trump stood up to enter his “not guilty” plea, answered perfunctory questions from the judge and thanked her at the conclusion of the arraignment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya set the next court date for Aug. 28, when a tentative trial date will be set, and directed Trump not to communicate directly about the facts of the case with any individual known to be a witness.

The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story.