By Alanna Durkin Richer | Associated Press
Donald Trump has long propagated unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. However, federal prosecutors revealed on Tuesday that it was Trump himself who attempted to steal the election, as outlined in a comprehensive indictment that portrays the former president as desperate to retain power.
The indictment from the Justice Department alleges that Trump conspired with allies and devised multiple schemes in a bold effort to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden, all while his legal challenges faltered in court.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution team built their case on the testimonies of Trump’s advisers, White House lawyers, and others in his inner circle, who repeatedly informed him that no fraud occurred.
This year marks the third time that Trump, the early frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has been charged in a criminal case. However, this is the first case that seeks to hold him accountable for his attempts to remain in power during the tumultuous weeks following his election defeat and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.
Trump, who has maintained his innocence, accused Jack Smith and the Justice Department of trying to sabotage his 2024 campaign.
Let’s delve into the charges Trump is facing and other important aspects of the indictment:
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST TRUMP?
Trump faces four charges: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and conspiracy to prevent others from exercising their constitutional rights.
In the obstruction charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the official proceeding refers to the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, where the electoral votes were to be certified, officially declaring Biden as the winner.
Many of the more than 1,000 individuals charged in the January 6 riot, including members of extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, have also faced the obstruction charge.
Conspiracy to defraud the U.S., punishable by up to five years in prison, criminalizes collusion with another person to commit fraud against the government. The indictment alleges that Trump employed “dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” to impede, obstruct, and defeat the counting and certifying of the election results.
WHAT DOES THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST RIGHTS IMPLY?
Trump is further accused of violating a civil rights statute from the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era. This statute makes it a crime to conspire to interfere with rights guaranteed by the Constitution, specifically the right to vote and have one’s vote counted. The maximum punishment for this charge is 10 years in prison.
Originating from a set of laws enacted in 1870 to respond to violence and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan, this provision has been utilized in various election fraud cases, including those involving ballot box stuffing or the disregard of certain votes. The success of the conspiracy is not a prerequisite; the actual impact on the election does not need to be proven.
In an earlier case this year, the Justice Department secured a conviction on this charge against Douglass Mackey, a far-right propagandist from Florida. Mackey was accused of conspiring with other internet influencers to disseminate fraudulent messages to supporters of then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with the aim of suppressing the vote in 2016.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The case against Trump was filed in a federal court in Washington, where he is expected to make his first appearance on Thursday.
Over the past two years, judges in that courthouse, within sight of the Capitol, have presided over the cases of numerous Trump supporters accused of participating in the January 6 riot. Many of these defendants claimed they were misled by the election falsehoods propagated by Trump and his allies.
Trump has indicated that his defense may partially rest on the notion that he genuinely believed the election was stolen. In a recent social media post, he argued, “I have the right to protest an Election that I am fully convinced was Rigged and Stolen, just as the Democrats have done against me in 2016, and many others have done over the ages.”
However, prosecutors have amassed substantial evidence demonstrating that Trump was repeatedly informed of his loss.
The indictment states, “Trump was repeatedly notified that his claims were untrue—often by individuals he trusted for candid advice on important matters, who were in the best position to possess factual knowledge—yet he deliberately disregarded the truth.”
In addition to this case, Trump is already scheduled to stand trial in March in a New York case related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign, as well as in a federal case in Florida tied to classified documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Last week, an updated indictment in the Florida case introduced new charges, accusing Trump of attempting to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage after it was requested by investigators.
Unlike Florida, where Republicans have gained ground in recent years, Trump is likely to face a challenging jury pool in overwhelmingly Democratic Washington, D.C. Out of approximately 100 people who have gone to trial in connection with the January 6 attack, only two have been acquitted of all charges, and those decisions were made by judges rather than juries.
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