Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury on four criminal counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
“Shortly after election day, the Defendant also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results,” the indictment states.
The newest case against Trump strikes at what’s seen as the former president’s most serious betrayal of his constitutional duties, when his efforts to remain in the White House after losing the 2020 election sought to undermine US democracy and the long-held American tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power.
The plot to overturn the 2020 election shattered presidential norms and culminated in an unthinkable physical assault on the Capitol on January 6, as Congress met to validate President Joe Biden’s victory. Even before that, Trump engaged in an unprecedented pressure campaign toward state election workers and lawmakers, Justice Department officials and even his own vice president to persuade them to throw out the 2020 results.
Trump has been summoned to appear before a magistrate judge in Washington, DC, federal court at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, the Justice Department announced.
The four counts are: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
Six unindicted co-conspirators were included. Among the six are four unnamed attorneys who allegedly aided Trump in his effort to subvert the 2020 election results. Also included is one unnamed Justice Department official who “attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.”
Smith also mentions an unnamed “political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Smith’s move to bring charges will test whether the criminal justice system can be used to hold Trump to account for his post-election conduct after he was acquitted in his impeachment trial related to his actions that day.
The indictment is the second time in two months that Smith has brought charges against Trump. In June, Trump was charged with retention of classified documents and conspiracy with a top aide to hide them from the government and his own attorneys. And separately in March, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on state charges of falsifying business records.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases – and is likely to do so again when he’s arraigned on the latest charges.
The new special counsel indictment comes as Trump remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The first two indictments have done little to impact his standing in the race.
Trump’s March indictment marked the first time in US history that a former president had faced criminal charges. Now there are three separate, concurrent cases where the president is facing felony allegations, which are all going to play out as Trump seeks to return to the White House in 2024 following his loss to Biden in 2020.
Fake electors plot hatched after 2020 election was unprecedented attempt to subvert Electoral College The so-called fake electors plot was an unprecedented attempt to subvert the Electoral College process by replacing electors that Biden had rightfully won with illegitimate GOP electors.
Trump supporters in seven key states met on December 14, 2020, and signed fake certificates, falsely proclaiming that Trump actually won their state and they were the rightful electors. They submitted these fake certificates to Congress and to the National Archives, in anticipation that their false claims would be embraced during the Electoral College certification on January 6, 2021.
At the time, their actions were largely dismissed as an elaborate political cosplay. But it eventually became clear that this was part of an orchestrated plan.
Senior Trump campaign officials orchestrated the fake electors plot and directly oversaw the state-by-state mechanics – linking Trump’s campaign apparatus to what originally looked like a hapless political stunt by local Trump supporters.
Federal investigators have subpoenaed the fake electors across the country, sent FBI agents to interview witnesses about their conduct, and recently granted immunity to two fake electors from Nevada to secure their grand jury testimony.
In Michigan, the state’s attorney general charged the 16 fake electors who signed certificates falsely claiming Trump won Michigan in the 2020 election with multiple felonies. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also expected to ask a grand jury this month to bring charges related to efforts in Georgia to subvert the election results.
This is huge, he might actually go to prison!
Even if convicted I'll be surprised if he spends more than a week in prison. It will end up being house arrest in Mar-a-Lago under the pretense of poor health or providing info on his international backers.
Much like Lev Parnas is on house arrest street only a few months of actual prison.
I doubt even for health reasons, probably more for security reasons. Secret Service securing a prison would be a nightmare for anything short of splitary confinement. For that reason alone, he'd probably be under house arrest.
I get that times have changed but I would be fine with him having an Al Capone cell.
And it would probably be easier for secret service to secure than the notoriously insecure Mar-a-lago.
But yeah, I'm not getting my hopes up for this one. Dude was born to filthy lucre and will die surrounded by gaudy filthy lucre.
If convincted of even one of these felonies, he should be stripped of all Secret Service protection. He should go to a state prison if New York convicts him (like Epstein) or to a federal prison if the US convicts him. No more special privileges for criminals. Al Capone, as well as other prominent government officials in Illinois, went to prison. Trump is a citizen now and should have equal treatment to serve his time.
He should indeed. But if we're talking about should, then the emoluments clause should have been enough for none of this to have ever happened. And the base level ethical requirements to be President should have been law. And the American people should have demanded their lawmakers and officials enforced the law and legislated for white collar crime penalties. There were a millions shoulds before we got to this hot mess.
But here we are with a logistical issue of protecting a person for life from others, while similtaneously protecting others from him. Modernity is wild.
Throw him in the hole and don’t let him out. That’s secure.
Once he's in prison for treason he doesn't get secret service protection anymore. He is up for the death penalty for christ's sake.
No idea if this is 100% accurate but howstuffworks says it would take an act of Congress, a presidential executive order, or Trump voluntarily declining for him to lose secret service. I don't think those will happen.
Lol would be savage if Biden drops an executive order on his way out of the Oval Office.
Republicans would endlessly jerk off about that, though. They already say the most insanely stupid things about Biden, so if he was “hey, trump should be executed” or whatever they would beyond lose their shit.
Don't underestimate his stupidity! I'm imagining a conversation like this:
Trump: "I need to get out! I need to go to Russia!"
Sycophant assistant: "You can't do that while the Secret Service is protecting you!"
Trump: "I'll just revoke Secret Service protection! Problem solved!"
Imagine how sad Trimp would feel if Putin was assassinated or deposed.
Leavenworth seems like it would work out just fine.
Yeah some kind of super max makes the most sense. He will be secure as fuck.
Sadly this will never happen.
Supermax shouldn't be a punishment, only a necessity. Nobody deserves that.
If he wants to claim he can’t serve in regular prison due to security concerns, then it’s a necessity. He will be very secure there.
Well no, a gigantic POS traitor definitely deserves that. Years of solitary have happened to people for much, much less.
They didn't deserve that.
He would hate being in Kansas
Everyone hates Kansas.
It would be perfect.
If he is, he has to live in a condo and can never leave. None of his crap where he gets to live in florida.
I hope so too. But he's already not supposed to be using Mar-a-lago as a permanent residence. So we'll see what happens.
Then get elected while in prison... now that would be hilarious.
Everyone speculates that this would be possible but I don't think it would be in reality. If he can't be present in the states holding primaries to debate the other Republican candidates there's a very slim chance he'll win the nomination. Especially if all his campaign funds are going to legal bills.
Who would they vote for instead, though? DeSantis is a twerp and the other competitors are a non-white guy called Shwamasharmy or something, and Chris Christie. Troomp already has all the name recognition and publicity he needs, plus conservatives would be so upset if he had to face accountability that they’d rally around it. They are definitely stupid enough to elect a traitor who was currently in prison.
Doesn't matter who wins the nomination. Whoever has an R next to their name will get the Republican vote. Even if it were Hitler.
I think at this point, especially him. They’d think he was fantastic.
Hitle®... damn, wonder if someone got that registered... seems like no "Hitle", but some actual Hitler® out there, WTF people.
If convicted of the charges, he would be barred from holding ANY public office under the 14th Ammendment
I would love to see this happen. He deserves it. But I honestly and truly believe that if he's convicted and sentenced, it will spark a civil war. The right wing militias see him essentially as a god, and the rest of the country as some twisted, satanic cabal that has invented things to charge him with just to try to silence him and, by extension, them as well. MAGAts are already violent and murderous. A criminal conviction will just be the last straw
There aren’t enough people of that mind to really have a civil war… it will just be more loser right wing Christian terrorism.