Nithyakalyani Narayanan. V
A federal grand jury has indicted former US President Donald Trump for his extensive efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He has been criminally charged as he seeks to reclaim the Presidency in 2024.
The 45-page indictment was filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith in Washington, DC. He has led investigations into Trump for the US Department of Justice. The four-count indictment charges that the Republican is dealing with are conspiring to defraud the US, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.
“Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false,” the indictment reads.
The indictment was issued by a jury of citizens in the District of Columbia, setting forth the crimes charged in detail. While the indictment affirms the 77-year-old Republican’s right to free speech, it also explains that he “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results”.
As per the indictment released by the Department of Justice, Trump is charged with a conspiracy to defraud the US “by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.” The second count charges him of “a conspiracy to impede” the congressional proceeding where the election results were certified.
Federal prosecutors charged him with “a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted.” The charge names six co-conspirators, four attorneys, a political consultant, and a Justice Department official who had worked on civil matters.
Trump in a statement to his supporters said that he did nothing wrong and the charges against him were politically motivated. He called the case “ridiculous” on social media.
This is the former President’s third indictment but is the first time that he has been formally held accountable for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the US Capitol.