by Nomad
The indictment alleges his involvement in a conspiracy to manipulate the 2020 election results in favor of President Joe Biden. This conspiracy is said to encompass the events of January 6, 2021, commonly called an insurrection, which a prosecutor characterized as an extraordinary attack on the democratic process.
As the indictment was unveiled, special counsel Jack Smith remarked, "The foundation of this assault was constructed upon falsehoods - falsehoods propagated by the accused."
According to MSNBC:
Former President Donald Trump is set to make his initial court appearance tomorrow at E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse, situated within close proximity—barely two miles—from the White House.
The first charge alleges a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. “by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election,” according to the Justice Department.
The second details “a conspiracy to impede” the Jan. 6, 2021, congressional proceeding where the election results were certified.
The third was “a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted,” said DOJ in a statement.
- The indictment details multiple strategies Trump and his allies employed in an attempt to overturn his election loss.
- One of the methods Trump used in a bid to steal the election involves a “fake elector” scheme to overturn President Joe Biden’s victories in key battleground states.
- Trump also deliberately deceived his supporters and directed them to march to the Capitol in an effort to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers to reject the certification of electors, the indictment alleges.
- Six co-conspirators are referenced in the indictment but are unnamed. Among those co-conspirators is Jeffrey Clark, a high-ranking Justice Department official in the Trump administration.
Now grappling with his third legal case, Donald Trump has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. He has decried the indictment as a deliberate effort to derail his aspirations for a 2024 presidential run.
"Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago?" Trump posted on his Truth Social account. "Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!"
This historic case will be presided over by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee. That detail must be extremely upsetting for Trump and his team of beleaguered lawyers. After all, this won't be the first time Chutkan and Trump's attorneys have tangled.
"Presidents," she wrote, "are not kings."
A fitting epitaph for Trump if ever there was one.