Trump indicted over 2020 election interference
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The federal grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s involvement in allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol indicted Trump on Tuesday.
A Trump spokesperson confirmed that the former president received the indictment on four federal charges.
According to NBC News, the charges include:
A conspiracy to defraud the United States.
A conspiracy to impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding.
A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted.
Obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct and impede, the certification of the electoral vote.
The indictment also lists six unnamed co-conspirators. Trump was summoned to be arraigned at a D.C. district court on Aug. 3.
“Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power,” the indictment says. “So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”
The document alleges when the violence ensued on Jan. 6, 2021, “the Defendant and co-conspirators exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims,” per CNN.
It also alleges that Trump lied to Georgia’s Secretary of State when he asked for a change to Georgia’s popular vote count, “and call(ed) into question the validity of the Biden electors’ vote, which had been transmitted to Congress weeks before.”
This news comes as Trump took to Truth Social an hour earlier to predict he would be indicted by special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump said, “I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.”
“Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!” he added.
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This is Trump’s third indictment and second federal indictment. The first federal charges were related to his retention of classified documents after his term as president, also stemming from Smith’s investigations. He pled not guilty to 37 felony counts.
His other charges were related to alleged hush money payments in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Trump, who is leading in the Republican primary polls for president in 2024, is the only former president to be indicted.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign issued a statement Tuesday over his third indictment.
“This is nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by substantial margins,” the statement said.
“But why did they wait two and a half years to bring these fake charges, right in the middle of President Trump’s winning campaign for 2024? Why was it announced the day after the big Crooked Joe Biden scandal broke out from the Halls of Congress?”
Smith, who was given special counsel status in 2022 by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, held a press conference after the indictment was released.
“The attack on our nation’s capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” Smith said, adding that it was “fueled by lies.”
“Since the attack on our capitol, the Department of Justice has remained committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day.”
Smith said that he will be seeking a “speedy trial.”
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