Trump Got Indicted for Trying to Steal an Election
Donald Trump has been indicted again — this time over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and an anti-democratic campaign that culminated in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The federal grand jury hearing evidence in the Justice Department’s probe into the scheme to subvert the election results handed up a sealed indictment on Tuesday. A person familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone that the former president has been informed he is the defendant.
It’s the third time (and counting) Trump has been charged criminally this year. His legal woes will be a central focus of the 2024 presidential election as he desperately tries to make a martyr out of himself and convince America the indictments are part of a vast Democratic conspiracy to keep him from retaking the White House.
Trump is charged on four criminal counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. “The Defendant lost the 2020 presidential election,” the indictment reads. “Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power.” The indictment goes on to note that Trump “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”
Trump is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, an Obama appointee.
Special Counsel Jack Smith announced the indictment in a press conference later on Tuesday, describing Trump’s actions as fueling “an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” referring to the attack on the Capitol. Smith added that his office’s “investigation of other individuals continues.”
The indictment lists six other individuals as co-conspirators, including Rudy Giuliani, and lays out how a co-conspirator matching the description of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark plotted to invoke the Insurrection Act to keep Trump in power. None of the co-conspirators have been charged yet, although Smith’s statement indicates that could change.
Trump’s team met with Smith’s office last Thursday morning, a sign that an indictment was imminent. Trump alleged on Truth Social that his attorneys had a “productive” meeting with Smith’s team, during which they assured prosecutors he “did nothing wrong.” Trump insisted his team was given no indication an indictment was forthcoming, despite reports that they were indeed told to expect charges soon. “Do not trust the Fake News on anything!” he wrote.
Smith, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s probes into the former president, indicted Trump in June on charges related to his handling of sensitive material after leaving office. It became clear in the weeks following Trump’s arraignment that Smith’s probe into Jan. 6 and the broader effort to overturn the 2020 election was intensifying. Trump then announced on July 18 that he had recently received a letter informing him he was a target of the investigation. “WITCH HUNT!!!” he wrote on Truth Social. “CROOKED JOE BIDEN & HIS INJUSTICE DEPARTMENT WANT TO INDICT & ARREST HIS PRESUMED POLITICAL OPPONENT (ME!).”
Rolling Stone reported that the target letter listed the federal statutes under which Trump was expected to be charged, including conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the United States; tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant; and deprivation of rights under color of law.
Trump released a lengthy statement after the indictment was filed on Tuesday, calling it a “pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice” to interfere with the election. He also said his “persecution” is “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes.”
“Comparing this indictment to Nazi Germany in the 1930s is factually incorrect, completely inappropriate and flat out offensive,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. “As we have said time and again, such comparisons have no place in politics and are shameful.”
It’s unclear what exactly Smith has uncovered about Trump’s role in fomenting the insurrection, but plenty has already been revealed publicly about his efforts to overturn the election. The House Jan. 6 Committee, after a months-long investigation and a series of high-profile hearings laying out the details of these efforts, concluded that Trump was responsible for the riot at the Capitol and voted unanimously to recommend the Justice Department charge him criminally. “We understand the gravity of each and every referral we are making today just as we understand the magnitude of the crime against democracy that we described in our report,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) concluded last December. “But we have gone where the facts and the law lead us and inescapably they lead us here.”
The charges related to the effort to overthrow the election of course are not the first to be leveled against the former president. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in March charged Trump with falsifying business records related to his effort to keep porn star Stormy Daniels quiet about their alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election, marking the first time in American history a former president faced criminal charges. Trump became the first former president to be slapped with federal charges two months later when Smith indicted him on charges related to his handling of classified documents, boxes of which he took from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida. There’s also Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has long been investigating efforts to meddle with the state’s 2020 election results and has signaled that indictments are coming in August. Willis has indicated that the former president — who famously told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes he needed to surpass Biden — could be among those charged.
Trump has responded to the slew of indictments by alleging, repeatedly, that he did nothing wrong and that the charges are the product of political corruption. The argument seems to be working on Republicans, at least. Trump not only remains the frontrunner to secure the party’s nomination, his lead over Ron DeSantis and the rest of his opponents has grown as his legal woes have intensified. Trump is even using the indictments to raise money for his campaign, although recent FEC filings indicate the strategy is producing diminishing returns.
Trump’s legal troubles aren’t only boosting his presidential run, they’re a large part of why he’s running. Rolling Stone has reported that Trump has made clear in private that he needs to win back the White House in order to escape accountability for his rap sheet of potentially criminal conduct. He’s also made clear publicly that if wins the general next year he’ll weaponize the Justice Department to exact his revenge on his political enemies — from Biden all the way down to the public servants in law enforcement who dared to investigate him.
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