A federal grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump—the third so far against the former president—over Trump’s efforts challenging the outcome of the 2020 election.
“Today an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding,” said special counsel Jack Smith, who has led the investigation into Trump’s actions after losing the 2020 election.
“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstrunucting a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election,” Smith also said.
Trump will reportedly be arraigned in Washington, D.C., federal court on Thursday before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya.
The four-count, 45-page indictment accuses Trump of “three criminal conspiracies.” One is a “conspiracy to defraud the United States using dishonesty, fraud and deceit.” Another alleges “a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede” the Jan. 6, 2021, congressional certification of votes. The third alleges “a conspiracy against the right to vote.”
The indictment refers to six unnamed co-conspirators who tried to help Trump overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.
This comes days after Smith added additional counts to his indictment in a federal court in Florida regarding classified documents.
Trump announced on Truth Social, his social media platform, that the indictment was coming at 5 p.m. Later several news outlets reported a sealed 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,” a statement by Trump’s 2024 campaign says.
The statement goes on to ask: “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?”
The statement continues:
The answer is, election interference! The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes. President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution, with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys.
These un-American witch hunts will fail and President Trump will be re-elected to the White House so he can save our Country from the abuse, incompetence, and corruption that is running through the veins of our Country at levels never seen before.
The first count in the indictment is “conspiracy to defraud the United States.” The second count is “conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.” The third count is “obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.” The fourth count is “conspiracy against rights.”
The indictment describes “co-conspirator 1” as “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims.” “Co-conspirator 2” is described as “an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy” to have then-Vice President Mike Pence block the certification of electoral votes in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
The indictment describes “co-conspirator 3” as an attorney who Trump acknowledged sounded “crazy.” It says that “co-conspirator 4” was a Justice Department official that attempted to open up “sham” election fraud investigations. It said “co-conspirator 5” was an attorney who tried to implement a plan to “submit a fraudulent slate” of presidential electors. “Co-conspirator 6” was described in the indictment as a “political consultant” that helped implement a fraudulent electors plan.
Several Republican lawmakers weighed in on Twitter:
Other 2024 Republican presidential candidates also spoke out about the indictment:
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