WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump for a third time Tuesday, this time accusing him of organizing a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden.
The indictment handed down in a federal court in Washington, D.C., listed four counts against Trump: 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 indictment was unsealed less than an hour after Trump sought to preempt prosecutors by announcing to supporters that he expected to be charged.
“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!”
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating Trump’s role in his campaign recruiting fake electors to flip the results of states President Joe Biden won, his strategy to have Vice President Mike Pence recognize the alternate electors and for encouraging supporters to “fight like hell” during a speech before the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. No former president has ever been charged with a crime before.
Trump announced July 18 he was a target of the investigation for alleged conspiracy to defraud the United States, deprivatino of rights and witness tampering. He has denied wrongdoing and argued the prosecution is politically motivated while continuing to campaign for president in 2024.
Trump already faces two other criminal cases. He was charged federally with mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. He was charged in New York with falsifying business records to pay hush money before the 2016 election to a woman who claimed to have had sex with him.
What is a grand jury?
It is a group of people who are selected to hear evidence presented by the government in order to determine whether to charge someone with a crime. Unlike a trial jury which decides whether or not to find someone guilty of a crime, a grand jury is only tasked with deciding whether the government has enough evidence to indict someone.
A grand jury usually conducts its proceedings in private and, after hearing evidence, will vote to decide whether to indict someone on criminal charges.
To decide whether to charge someone with a crime, a federal grand jury only requires a simple majority to vote in favor of indicting. A trial jury, however, needs unanimity to reach a guilty verdict.
This marks the third time a grand jury has voted to indict former President Donald Trump.
−Miles J. Herszenhorn
What does the indictment say?
The indictment detailed Trump’s effort to use the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election.
“In late December 2020, the Defendant attempted to use the Justice Department to make knowingly false claims of election fraud to officials in the targeted states through a formal letter under the Acting Attorney General’s signature, thus giving the Defendant’s lies the backing of the federal government and attempting to improperly influence the targeted states to replace legitimate Biden electors with the Defendant’s,” the indictment stated.
The indictment also alleged that Trump threatened to change leadership in the Justice Department after senior DOJ officials refused to support the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election. The indictment references a 2020 New Year’s Eve meeting between Trump, acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue.
“On December 31, the Defendant summoned to the Oval Office the Acting Attorney General, Acting Deputy Attorney General, and other advisors,” the indictment stated. “In the meeting, the Defendant again raised claims about election fraud that Justice Department officials already had told him were not true–and that the senior Justice Department officials reiterated were false and suggested he might change the leadership in the Justice Department.”
−Miles J. Herszenhorn
