Donald Trump indicted on 4 counts over efforts to overturn 2020 election results
- US federal indictment led by US Special Counsel Jack Smith also makes reference to six co-conspirators, including a Justice Department official
- Trump has already been indicted on federal charges concerning his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House
The front-running candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination posted on his Truth Social platform soon before news reports that an indictment in the investigation led by US Special Counsel Jack Smith was imminent.
The indictment included four counts: “Conspiracy to defraud the US; a conspiracy to threaten the rights of others; a conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding before Congress; and obstruction of an official proceeding.
Trump “did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators … to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified”, the indictment said.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election,” it added.
Speaking to reporters gathered at the Justice Department on Tuesday evening, Smith called the January 6 attack “an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy” and devoted much of his brief speech to law enforcement officials who defended the Capitol in the melee.
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“The men and women of law enforcement who defended the US Capitol … are heroes, they’re patriots and they are the very best of us,” he said. “They did not just defend a building or the people sheltering in it. They put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a people.”
A trial date in that case has been set for May 20, 2024, in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The latest case provides more visibility into a wide range of actions Trump and his supporters took to obstruct the legitimate transfer of power to Biden, who defeated Trump by more than 7 million votes.
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That included the run-up to the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol, when more than 2,000 people stormed the building in a bid to disrupt the certification of electoral votes in Congress.
The indictment included details of Trump’s attempts to pressure then vice-president Mike Pence to refrain from certifying the election.
The document quoted Trump as telling Pence that he was “too honest”.
Pence, who is also running against Trump for the Republican Party nomination, issued a statement calling the indictment “an important reminder”.
“Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” he said.
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Ahead of the indictment, Trump has regularly assailed Smith, the US Justice Department and the FBI, claiming on Truth Social to be the victim of a “coordinated HOAX” orchestrated by his enemies to rob him of a return to the White House.
The indictment in the classified documents case, which included violations of the Espionage Act, was the first issued to a former American president by the federal government.
According to charges in that case, Trump illegally retained reams of documents with highly classified intelligence and obstructing attempts by US officials to retrieve them. Additionally, he was said to have described a Pentagon “plan of attack” and shared a classified map related to a military operation with individuals who lacked security clearance.
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In yet another legal tangle this year, a civil court jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing magazine writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her by branding her a liar; it ordered him to pay US$5 million in damages.
The judge assigned to Trump’s latest case announced Tuesday, Tanya Chutkan, made headlines in 2021, when she rejected Trump’s effort at that time to block a House committee from accessing White House records related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Ruling that Trump had no authority to overrule Biden’s decision to waive executive privilege that the former president was claiming and release the materials to Congress, Chutkan said: “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president”.
Trump was ordered to make an initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Thursday.
Trump also faces a fourth criminal investigation by a county prosecutor in Georgia into accusations he sought to undo his 2020 election loss in that state.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has indicated she plans to bring charges in that case within the next three weeks.
Additional reporting by Reuters
