- Former President Donald Trump is facing four criminal charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election result.
- Trump and his aides colluded to undermine the power transfer and deny voters a fair election, according to prosecutors.
- The indictment accuses Trump of spreading false claims about election fraud, which fueled the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Miami and New York are prosecuting the former president for national security and business record fraud.
Prosecutors are attempting to link Donald Trump to the January 6 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters. Donald Trump is facing four criminal charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election result.
The 45-page court document concentrates on alleged plots by the former Republican president and his allies to subvert the transfer of power and keep him in the White House despite his loss to the Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Trump falsely claims the 2020 November election was wrong, and many of his supporters and allies disagree.
However, special counsel Jack Smith has asserted that Trump’s falsehoods “fueled” the January 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington, D.C., in which rioters attacked the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the election result.
Prosecutors also allege that he “exploited” the attack by rejecting the advice of his advisers to send a message directing the rioters to leave the building, following his rally and impassioned speech earlier that day.
Thursday, Trump has been ordered to appear before a federal magistrate judge in the city. Despite competing for president again in 2020, he has been charged three times in four months.
The latest charge alleges he conspired to prevent politicians from declaring Mr. Biden’s victory and deny voters a fair election.
According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), five people were killed during or after the assault. Including four protesters and one police officer, and approximately 140 officers were injured.
The government’s case
Prosecutors have stated that although Trump lost the 2020 election, he was “determined to remain in power”. And for two months he “spread lies” about fraud and his victory.
The indictment stated, “These claims were false, and the defendant knew they were false. Nevertheless, the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them.”
Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s closest allies and his former personal attorney, appears to be one of them. John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Chesebro are said to be the others, while the sixth is unknown.
Some of them are accused of erroneously insinuating that former vice president Mike Pence might object to certifying the results of the 2020 election, and of making unfounded accusations that Trump “embraced and amplified.”
Prosecutors asserted that in the weeks preceding the January 6 election, Trump fraudulently told Vice President Pence at least three times that he had the authority to reject election results, despite Pence’s opposition each time.
On January 6, Trump allegedly orchestrated a scheme to have fake electors in seven states, which he lost, submit their ballots to be counted and certified as official by Congress.
Three criminal conspiracies “pursued unlawful means” of “discounting legitimate votes and subverting election results” according to the DOJ.
One of the conspiracies, according to the report, was to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to “obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the election results.”
The Department of Justice said the second conspiracy sought to delay the January 6 presidential election results certification.
The third alleged conspiracy, according to the department, was against the right to vote and to have votes counted. Additionally, the indictment alleged that Trump “attempted and engaged in corruptly obstructing and impeding the certification of the electoral vote.”
Similar to Nazi Germany
A spokesperson for President Trump compared the new indictment to “Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes”, describing them as “un-American.”
Earlier, Mr. Trump stated on his Truth Social platform, “I hear that, to interfere with the presidential election of 2024. The deranged Jack Smith will release yet another Fake Indictment of your preferred president, me, at 5 pm.
“Why didn’t they do this two and a half years ago? How long did they wait? Because they desired to insert it directly into my campaign. Misconduct by prosecutors!
Other instances
Mr. Trump’s ongoing legal troubles have been compounded by recent court appearances in Miami and New York.
Mr. Trump pled not guilty in Miami to charges that he unlawfully retained national security documents after leaving office and lied to officials in an attempt to recover them.
In New York, he pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of falsifying business documents “to conceal damaging information and illegal activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.”
Mr. Trump is also countersuing E. Jean Carroll, who claimed he raped her in the 1990s; in a civil case, he was found culpable of sexual assault and defamation, but not rape.
