Lock Him Up!
2023-08-02 01:46:38 UTC
Trump indicted for bid to overturn 2020 election
Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four felonies, alleging a
multifaceted effort to spread disinformation and disenfranchise American
voters. Donald Trump speaking at a podium in front of the White House,
with a person wearing a red hat holding up a sign in the foreground.
President Donald Trump speaks to supporters near the White House on Jan.
6, 2021, prior to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. | Brendan
Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
By Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein
08/01/2023 05:46 PM EDT
Updated: 08/01/2023 09:01 PM EDT
Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump with conspiring to seize a
second term after losing the 2020 election, alleging a months-long
campaign of deceit and abuses that ended with him sitting idly while a
violent mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol.
In a 45-page indictment unveiled Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith
charged Trump with four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the
United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The
indictment also accused Trump of trying to exploit the violent Jan. 6,
2021, assault on Congress to continue his effort to cling to power.
The attack on our nations capital on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented
assault on the seat of American democracy, Smith declared during a brief
appearance before reporters shortly after the indictment was made public.
It was fueled by lies lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a
bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nations process of
collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential
election.
The indictment identified six individuals as co-conspirators in Trumps
effort to overturn the election, but none of those people were charged
Tuesday. Though the alleged co-conspirators were not named, the
descriptions correspond to a cabal of Trump lawyers who embraced
increasingly fringe strategies as Trumps bid to remain in power faltered.
They include Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney
Powell. Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives to make a statement to the
press.
Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives to make a statement to the press in
Washington, D.C., Aug. 1, 2023 after former President Donald Trump was
indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts relating to efforts to
overturn the 2020 election leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the
U.S. Capitol. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Trumps case was initially assigned to U.S. District Court Tanya Chutkan,
an Obama-appointed judge who has been among the harshest critics of Jan. 6
defendants and their conduct.
The indictment describes a breathtaking, multifaceted effort by Trump to
reverse his defeat to Joe Biden at the polls, one that grew increasingly
desperate and crossed into criminality as his legal options dwindled.
It depicts Trump at the apex of a wide-ranging scheme that included
amplifying knowingly false claims about election fraud, leaning on state
legislators to falsely assert that the election outcome was in doubt and
assembling false slates of presidential electors to force a conflict.
Portrait of Donald Trump surrounded by images representing the criminal
investigations he is facing
Tracking Trumps criminal investigations: The Jan. 6 insurrection
investigation
By POLITICO Staff
When, in the weeks after Election Day, Trumps lawsuits challenging the
results foundered and state officials balked at his pressure campaign,
Trump turned to the Jan. 6 session of Congress, a joint meeting presided
over by his own vice president, Mike Pence. Trump began publicly and
privately leaning on Pence to assert the unilateral authority to refuse to
count Bidens electoral votes in as many as seven states. Instead, Trump
wanted Pence to declare the election results in doubt and ask state
legislatures to consider reversing the outcome.
That effort, Smith concluded, amounted to an unlawful scheme to obstruct
Congress constitutional duty to count electoral votes and it laid the
groundwork for the mass violence that followed, when a mob of Trump
supporters, seeded with members of extremist groups and conspiracy
theorists, stormed the Capitol, hundreds of them bludgeoning police
officers, in an effort to prevent Congress from finalizing Bidens
victory.
Trump now faces criminal charges in three separate cases as he mounts a
bid to be re-elected president in 2024. Last month, Smiths team charged
him with hoarding classified documents and obstructing the governments
efforts to retrieve them charges that prosecutors expanded last week. In
March, the Manhattan district attorney charged him with falsifying
business records in connection with a hush money payment to cover up an
alleged affair with a porn star. Watch: Jack Smith gives remarks following
latest Trump indictment
The district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, is also investigating
Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in that state, which
Biden narrowly won. She is expected to announce charges this month.
Smith announced the new indictment Tuesday evening at a Justice Department
satellite office a setting intended to convey his independence from the
politically appointed leadership of DOJ. About two dozen prosecutors and
investigators stood in the back of a conference as their boss who is
accompanied by a 24-hour security detail spoke. What questions do you
have about the four criminal cases Trump is facing? * Saved
Powered by CityBase Screendoor.
In his stern, three-minute statement, Smith mentioned Trump by name only
once and did not refer to his former office. The prosecutor called the
police officers who defended the Capitol heroes and said charging Trump
was consistent with DOJs efforts to pursue other crimes committed that
day. MOST READ
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The special counsel did not respond to or acknowledge reporters
questions, including queries about why the alleged co-conspirators remain
uncharged and how the indictment might affect the 2024 election.
Our investigation of other individuals continues, Smith said.
Media satellite trucks are seen outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S.
Courthouse.
Media satellite trucks are seen outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S.
Courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
The indictment tracks closely with evidence amassed by the House Jan. 6
select committee in 2021 and 2022 but adds key new wrinkles. For example,
the indictment indicates that Trump called two U.S. senators at 6 p.m. on
Jan. 6 even as the riot was still raging in parts of the Capitol in a
further attempt to block Bidens election. It also notes that, at 7 p.m.,
his White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, urged him to call off Republican
legislators who were intent on raising objections to the election results.
Trump refused, according to the charges.
The indictment also underscores the deep unease inside Trumps campaign as
he pressed his increasingly fringe plans. It describes campaign officials
refusing to sign a press statement about the scheme to appoint false
electors in the states. It alleges that Giuliani falsely assured those
signing the fraudulent elector certificates in Pennsylvania that they
would be used only if Trump succeeded in litigation.
The indictment also indicates that Pence kept contemporaneous notes of
some interactions with Trump, including a Dec. 29, 2020, exchange in which
he recalled Trump falsely telling him that the Justice Department was
finding major infractions related to election fraud.
Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four felonies, alleging a
multifaceted effort to spread disinformation and disenfranchise American
voters. Donald Trump speaking at a podium in front of the White House,
with a person wearing a red hat holding up a sign in the foreground.
President Donald Trump speaks to supporters near the White House on Jan.
6, 2021, prior to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. | Brendan
Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
By Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein
08/01/2023 05:46 PM EDT
Updated: 08/01/2023 09:01 PM EDT
Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump with conspiring to seize a
second term after losing the 2020 election, alleging a months-long
campaign of deceit and abuses that ended with him sitting idly while a
violent mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol.
In a 45-page indictment unveiled Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith
charged Trump with four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the
United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The
indictment also accused Trump of trying to exploit the violent Jan. 6,
2021, assault on Congress to continue his effort to cling to power.
The attack on our nations capital on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented
assault on the seat of American democracy, Smith declared during a brief
appearance before reporters shortly after the indictment was made public.
It was fueled by lies lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a
bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nations process of
collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential
election.
The indictment identified six individuals as co-conspirators in Trumps
effort to overturn the election, but none of those people were charged
Tuesday. Though the alleged co-conspirators were not named, the
descriptions correspond to a cabal of Trump lawyers who embraced
increasingly fringe strategies as Trumps bid to remain in power faltered.
They include Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney
Powell. Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives to make a statement to the
press.
Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives to make a statement to the press in
Washington, D.C., Aug. 1, 2023 after former President Donald Trump was
indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts relating to efforts to
overturn the 2020 election leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the
U.S. Capitol. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Trumps case was initially assigned to U.S. District Court Tanya Chutkan,
an Obama-appointed judge who has been among the harshest critics of Jan. 6
defendants and their conduct.
The indictment describes a breathtaking, multifaceted effort by Trump to
reverse his defeat to Joe Biden at the polls, one that grew increasingly
desperate and crossed into criminality as his legal options dwindled.
It depicts Trump at the apex of a wide-ranging scheme that included
amplifying knowingly false claims about election fraud, leaning on state
legislators to falsely assert that the election outcome was in doubt and
assembling false slates of presidential electors to force a conflict.
Portrait of Donald Trump surrounded by images representing the criminal
investigations he is facing
Tracking Trumps criminal investigations: The Jan. 6 insurrection
investigation
By POLITICO Staff
When, in the weeks after Election Day, Trumps lawsuits challenging the
results foundered and state officials balked at his pressure campaign,
Trump turned to the Jan. 6 session of Congress, a joint meeting presided
over by his own vice president, Mike Pence. Trump began publicly and
privately leaning on Pence to assert the unilateral authority to refuse to
count Bidens electoral votes in as many as seven states. Instead, Trump
wanted Pence to declare the election results in doubt and ask state
legislatures to consider reversing the outcome.
That effort, Smith concluded, amounted to an unlawful scheme to obstruct
Congress constitutional duty to count electoral votes and it laid the
groundwork for the mass violence that followed, when a mob of Trump
supporters, seeded with members of extremist groups and conspiracy
theorists, stormed the Capitol, hundreds of them bludgeoning police
officers, in an effort to prevent Congress from finalizing Bidens
victory.
Trump now faces criminal charges in three separate cases as he mounts a
bid to be re-elected president in 2024. Last month, Smiths team charged
him with hoarding classified documents and obstructing the governments
efforts to retrieve them charges that prosecutors expanded last week. In
March, the Manhattan district attorney charged him with falsifying
business records in connection with a hush money payment to cover up an
alleged affair with a porn star. Watch: Jack Smith gives remarks following
latest Trump indictment
The district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, is also investigating
Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in that state, which
Biden narrowly won. She is expected to announce charges this month.
Smith announced the new indictment Tuesday evening at a Justice Department
satellite office a setting intended to convey his independence from the
politically appointed leadership of DOJ. About two dozen prosecutors and
investigators stood in the back of a conference as their boss who is
accompanied by a 24-hour security detail spoke. What questions do you
have about the four criminal cases Trump is facing? * Saved
Powered by CityBase Screendoor.
In his stern, three-minute statement, Smith mentioned Trump by name only
once and did not refer to his former office. The prosecutor called the
police officers who defended the Capitol heroes and said charging Trump
was consistent with DOJs efforts to pursue other crimes committed that
day. MOST READ
1563694288
Trumps indictments are having diminishing returns for his political
fundraising Georgia judge skewers Trumps bid to derail potential
charges What the new Covid-19 surge really means
DeSantis latest comments slammed by anti-abortion group as
unacceptable 2 more Trump indictments loom. Here are all the names
to know.
The special counsel did not respond to or acknowledge reporters
questions, including queries about why the alleged co-conspirators remain
uncharged and how the indictment might affect the 2024 election.
Our investigation of other individuals continues, Smith said.
Media satellite trucks are seen outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S.
Courthouse.
Media satellite trucks are seen outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S.
Courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
The indictment tracks closely with evidence amassed by the House Jan. 6
select committee in 2021 and 2022 but adds key new wrinkles. For example,
the indictment indicates that Trump called two U.S. senators at 6 p.m. on
Jan. 6 even as the riot was still raging in parts of the Capitol in a
further attempt to block Bidens election. It also notes that, at 7 p.m.,
his White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, urged him to call off Republican
legislators who were intent on raising objections to the election results.
Trump refused, according to the charges.
The indictment also underscores the deep unease inside Trumps campaign as
he pressed his increasingly fringe plans. It describes campaign officials
refusing to sign a press statement about the scheme to appoint false
electors in the states. It alleges that Giuliani falsely assured those
signing the fraudulent elector certificates in Pennsylvania that they
would be used only if Trump succeeded in litigation.
The indictment also indicates that Pence kept contemporaneous notes of
some interactions with Trump, including a Dec. 29, 2020, exchange in which
he recalled Trump falsely telling him that the Justice Department was
finding major infractions related to election fraud.