Former President Donald Trump Indicted on Four Felony Counts in a Bid to Overturn 2020 Election Results

Donald Trump has been accused by federal prosecutors of plotting to win a second term after losing the 2020 presidential election. Trump allegedly engaged in a months-long campaign of lies and abuse that culminated with him watching passively as a violent mob of his supporters invaded the Capitol, Politico reports.

Special counsel Jack Smith accused Trump of four felonies in a 45-page indictment released on Tuesday, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Additionally, Trump was charged with attempting to utilize the violent attack on Congress on January 6, 2021, to further his efforts to hold onto power.

“The attack on our nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” Smith stated during a brief interview with 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 nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”

Six persons were named in the indictment as conspirators in Trump's attempt to rig the election, but none of them were prosecuted on Tuesday. Even though the accused conspirators were not identified, the descriptions fit a group of Trump lawyers who adopted increasingly outlandish tactics as Trump's attempt to hold onto power grew weaker. These consist of Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, and Rudy Giuliani, per The Guardian.

Initial responsibility for Trump's case fell to U.S. District Court Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who has been among the most outspoken in her criticism of the Jan. 6 accused and their actions.

The indictment details Trump's astonishing and sophisticated campaign to overturn his poll loss to Joe Biden. It shows Trump as the mastermind behind a complex plot that includes exaggerating "knowingly false" allegations of election fraud, relying on state lawmakers to make false assertions that the election's outcome was in doubt, and putting together bogus lists of presidential electors to provoke a dispute.

When Trump's lawsuits disputing the results failed and state authorities resisted his pressure campaign, he resorted to the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, presided over by his own vice president, Mike Pence. Trump started relying on Pence both in public and in private to argue his unilateral right to deny counting Biden's electoral votes in as many as seven states. Trump preferred that Pence cast doubt on the election results and urge state legislatures to consider overturning the decision. This attempt, according to Smith, amounted to an illegal plot to obstruct Congress' constitutional duty to count electoral votes.

It also served as the catalyst for the widespread violence that ensued when a mob of Trump supporters, some of whom were radicalized and conspiracy theorists, stormed the Capitol and assaulted numerous police officers in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden's victory.

Trump, who is the frontrunner among Republican candidates, is currently being investigated for crimes in three different cases as he runs for re-election in 2024.

References:

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/01/trump-indicted-again-00109286

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/01/trump-indicted-reaction-key-takeaways