A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted former President Donald Trump on four criminal charges stemming from his efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election and the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, compounding his already severe legal woes while he pursues his third bid for the White House.
The four-count, 45-page indictment accuses Mr. Trump of engineering three schemes to stop Joseph R. Biden’s election victory and remain in office. Mr. Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.
Prosecutors say Mr. Trump was so desperate to remain in power that for two months after the November election, he “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he actually had won.”
“These claims were false, the defendant knew they were false. But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway — to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger and erode public faith in the administration of elections,” prosecutors wrote.
Mr. Trump’s campaign denied he had committed any wrongdoing and accused Mr. Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department to subvert his presidential campaign.
“The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian dictatorial regimes,” the campaign’s statement said. “President Trump has always followed the law and Constitution with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys.”
The indictment mentions six unidentified co-conspirators, who are accused of assisting Mr. Trump’s “criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power.”
Mr. Trump is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, and his case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanay S. Chutkan, who was appointed by President Obama in 2014.
The co-conspirators were described in the indictment as:
• An attorney who was “willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies the defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.”
• An attorney who “devised and attempted to implement a strategy” to get former Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Mr. Biden’s election win.
• An attorney whose “unfounded claims of election fraud, the defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy.’”
• A Justice Department official who “attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.”
• An attorney who “assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors” to obstruct Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
• A political consultant who “helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Prosecutors say Mr. Trump and his co-conspirators took part in three criminal conspiracies to defraud the United States by “using dishonesty, fraud and deceit,” to obstruct the electoral vote process to impede Congress from certifying Mr. Biden’s election win on Jan. 6, and to obstruct “the right to vote and have that vote counted.”
In remarks shortly after the indictment was handed up, Mr. Smith said the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an “unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy” and “fueled by lies.”
“Lies by the defendant, targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, a nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election,” Mr. Smith said.
He hailed the efforts of law enforcement officers who pushed back against the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol, many of whom were assaulted by the rioters.
“They did not just defend a building with people sheltering in it. They put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a people,” he said. “They defended the very institutions and principles that define the United States.”
Mr. Smith pledged that Mr. Trump would receive a speedy trial, which could put him in a courtroom at the height of the 2024 Republican primary elections. That could prove difficult for Mr. Trump, who also has court appearances lined up in two other cases.
The indictment is the third for the former president. He was indicted in June on 37 federal criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials. In April, the Manhattan district attorney charged him with falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments to two women who said they had extramarital affairs with Mr. Trump. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
The Manhattan trial is scheduled to begin in March, and the documents case in Florida is set for trial in May.
No former or current president was indicted before Mr. Trump was charged in the hush-money case.
Mr. Trump also could face charges in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis has signaled that she could charge Mr. Trump and his allies with interfering in the state’s 2020 election.
Behind the scenes, Republicans say an indictment likely will make Mr. Trump stronger.
The Department of Justice is so tarnished in the eyes of most Republicans that primary voters will find it hard to believe whatever charges come forth — even if they are true.
The trust in the system is so low, they say, that Mr. Trump’s poll numbers likely will climb.
Other Republicans said many primary voters are still in the early stages of making up their minds. In states such as Iowa, some might not make their final decision until they walk into their local caucus or primary place.
What is clear is that Mr. Trump’s legal woes are forcing him and his allies to burn through money that could be spent on his reelection campaign — not legal defenses
It was reported this week that Save America, a pro-Trump political action committee, has picked up the bill for more than $40 million in legal fees incurred by Mr. Trump and witnesses in the cases related to him.
The same group paid $16 million in legal fees in the previous two years.
Even as his legal woes mount, Mr. Trump has maintained and, in many cases, expanded his lead in 2024 presidential polls, and he is locked in a tight hypothetical general election rematch with Mr. Biden.
By a 74% to 13% margin, a New York Times/Sienna poll released this week found that most Republicans believe Mr. Trump has not committed any serious federal crimes.
Mr. Trump’s political rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination had mixed reactions. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded in a tweet vowing to “end the weaponization of government” if elected president.
Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a long-shot contender for the Republican presidential nod, said the indictment marks “another sad day for America” and “reaffirms my earlier call that Donald Trump should step away from the campaign for the good of the country.”
“If not, the voters must choose a different path,” Mr. Hutchinson said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr. Smith as special counsel in November to oversee the Justice Department’s classified documents and Jan. 6 investigations.
Grand jurors deliberated for several hours Tuesday before handing up the indictment. During the wide-ranging investigation, the grand jury heard from scores of witnesses, including Mr. Pence and others in Trump’s orbit.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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