2023-08-02 10:26:31
For years, Donald Trump has promoted unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. In reality, it was Trump who tried to steal the election, federal prosecutors asserted Tuesday in a lengthy indictment describing the former president as desperate to hold on to the power that had been taken away from him by the voters.
The Justice Department indictment charges Trump with brazenly conspiring with his allies to spread falsehoods and schemes to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden following his legal challenges failed in court.
The felony charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith revolve around the words of White House lawyers and others in his inner circle who repeatedly told Trump there was no fraud.
It is the third time this year that the favorite in the 2024 Republican presidential primary has been indicted in a criminal case. But this is the first case in which an attempt has been made to hold Trump accountable for his efforts to stay in power during the chaotic weeks between his electoral defeat and his supporters’ assault on the federal Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump has said he did nothing wrong, and has accused Smith and the Justice Department of trying to undermine his presidential campaign leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
Here’s a look at the charges Trump faces and other key points in the indictment:
What is Trump accused of?
Trump is charged with four counts: Obstruction of Official Procedure, Conspiracy to Obstruct Official Procedure, Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, and Conspiracy to Prevent Others from Exercising Constitutional Rights.
In the obstruction charge, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, the official procedure refers to the joint session in the federal Congress on January 6, 2021 in which the collegiate votes had to be counted to certify Biden as the official winner. Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding also carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The obstruction charge has been brought once morest hundreds of the more than 1,000 defendants in connection with the January 6 insurrection, including members of the far-right groups Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. More than 100 people have been convicted at trial or have pleaded guilty to the offence.
The conspiracy to defraud the United States, which is punishable by up to five years in prison, prohibits efforts to obstruct or interfere with government functions “by deceit, trickery, or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest,” according to with the Supreme Court. The act alleges that Trump used “dishonesty, fraud and deception” to obstruct the counting and certification of election results.
Trump had the right to contest the election, and even to falsely claim that he had won, according to the record. The charges, however, stem from what prosecutors say were illegal attempts to subvert election results and block the peaceful transfer of power.
The indictment alleges that the multi-week campaign began with pressure on state legislators and election officials to switch collegial votes from Biden to Trump, and then evolved into producing bogus lists of pro-Trump voters to be sent out. to Congress.
Trump and his allies also sought to use the Justice Department to conduct bogus voter fraud investigations in order to further their fraudulent scheme, according to the indictment.
As January 6 approached, Trump and his allies pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject some collegiate votes, and when that didn’t work, the former president directed his supporters to the US Capitol to prevent certification of the votes. election results, the indictment states.
Finally, the indictment alleges, Trump and his allies sought to capitalize on his supporters’ storming of the Capitol by redoubling their efforts to spread election lies and convincing members of Congress to further delay certification of Trump’s victory. Biden.
What is the charge of conspiracy once morest constitutional rights?
Trump is accused of violating a post-Civil War Reconstruction-era civil rights statute that makes it a crime to conspire to violate rights guaranteed in the Constitution, in this case: The right to vote and have it counted. It carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
The provision was originally part of a set of laws passed in 1870 in response to violence and intimidation by members of the Klu Klux Klan to keep black people away from the polls.
But it has been used over the years in a wide range of voter fraud cases, including to prosecute conspiracies to stuff ballot boxes or not count certain votes. The conspiracy does not have to be successful, that is, the fraud does not have to actually affect the elections.
The Justice Department secured a conviction on this charge earlier this year in the case of Douglass Mackey, a far-right propagandist from Florida who was accused of conspiring with others with large online followings to spread fraudulent messages to supporters of then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in an effort to suppress the vote in 2016.
Was anyone else charged?
Trump is the only defendant in the indictment, which names six unidentified accomplices. It is currently unclear why they were not charged or if they will be added to the indictment later.
Among the accomplices are a lawyer “who was willing to knowingly spread false claims and adopt strategies” that Trump’s 2020 campaign lawyers refused to take, and a lawyer whose “unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud,” by admissions of Trump to other people in private, they sounded “insane.” Another accomplice is a political consultant who helped put up bogus voter lists for Trump.
What will happen now?
The criminal case was filed in federal court in Washington, where Trump is scheduled to appear Thursday.
For more than two years, judges in that court — which is located near the Capitol — have been hearing the cases of hundreds of Trump supporters accused of involvement in the January 6 assault, many of whom have said they were deceived by the electoral lies spread by Trump and his allies.
Trump has indicated that his defense may rest, at least in part, on the idea that he truly believed his election had been stolen, recently posting on social media: “I have the right to protest an election that I am fully convinced was rigged.” and it was stolen from me, just as the Democrats have done once morest me in 2016, and many others have done throughout history.”
But prosecutors have gathered a significant amount of evidence showing that Trump was repeatedly told he had lost.
Trump “was repeatedly notified that his claims were false, often by people he trusted for candid advice on important matters, and who were in the best position to know the facts, and he willfully ignored the truth.” indicates the indictment.
Trump is already scheduled for trial in March in the New York case that stems from payments he made to keep quiet a porn actress who said she had an extramarital affair with him during the 2016 campaign; and another in May in the federal case in Florida stemming from confidential documents found at his Mar-a-Lago farm.
An update to the indictment in the case of the confidential documents that was unsealed last week added new charges involving allegations that Trump tried to get recordings from Mar-a-Lago surveillance cameras removed following that were requested by the researchers.
Unlike Florida, where Republicans have made steady gains in recent years, Trump will likely face a tough jury in Washington, DC, where Democrats abound. Of the roughly 100 people who have stood trial for the Capitol storming, only two have been acquitted of all charges and those cases were decided by judges, not juries.
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