On January 6, 2021, several thousand Trump supporters marched on Capitol Hill and broke into the US Congress.
At least five people lost their lives.
In 2020, Trump narrowly lost the election campaign against Democrat Joe Biden. He refused to accept the election result, and instead took up the lie about electoral fraud in all channels.
Was this why hordes of humans marched into America’s democratic core?
Special investigator Jack Smith believes so, and has drawn up the indictments against the former president.
Trump has been summoned to appear in a court in Washington DC on Thursday at 16.00 local time to appear before judge Moxila Upadhyaya, writes the BBC.
Protesters gathered outside the White House earlier on January 6 to hear Trump speak.
Foto: Jacquelyn Martin / AP
– These are in many ways the most serious. This is about trying to influence a democratic election of a sitting head of state, says Sofie Høgestøl.
On July 18, Donald Trump will receive a letter from the Ministry of Justice. There, he must have been informed that they were investigating him in connection with these incidents.
On 27 July, his lawyers had a meeting with the Ministry of Justice.
Former US President Donald Trump is now indicted on four counts in connection with the 2020 election.
These are the legal proceedings surrounding Donald Trump:
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There is great excitement about another possible indictment in the vote counting case, where Trump is to blame for try to change the result of the last presidential election in the state of Georgia. This is expected to arrive this summer. Trump has 40 charges against him in Florida, where he is guilty of having stored secret document, and to have tried to prevent the case from being investigated. In New York, he is charged with possession provided incorrect information about the money he gave to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair between the two. He also stayed civilly convicted in Manhattan for a sexual assault against the author E. Jean Carroll.
Former vice president among the star witnesses
– What will be important for the prosecution now is to prove that Trump had understood that he lost and still continued to oppose the election result, says Høgestøl.
– That is why the Ministry of Justice has talked a lot with the staff around Trump, to map out what he said and understood during and after the election.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is one of the most central witnesses.
Jacob Anthony Chansley (centre), or the “shaman” of the conspiracy group QAnon, was sentenced to almost three and a half years in prison. He was released early in March 2023.
Photo: SAUL LOEB / AFP
But also important here are: Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows; his White House adviser, Pat Cipollone; his National Insurance Adviser, Robert O’Brien; and his senior political adviser, Stephen Miller.
They can give an insight into Trump’s state of mind and his thoughts behind the scenes.
– What kind of sentence can Trump possibly get?
– It is difficult to say. There is a long way to a possible verdict. This is also a rather unusual case, so it is difficult to point to other cases and how many years he will get if he is convicted.
Trump has attended several public meetings recently to win support for the nomination election. This photo is from Nevada on July 8, 2023.
Photo: AFP
40 million for lawyers
Editor of Amerikanspolitikk.no, Are Tågvold Flaten, believes that Trump has proven to be “almost unassailable” in the early phase of his election campaign.
Are Tågvold Flaten is a political scientist and editor at Amerikanspolitikk.no.
– Despite all the weaknesses, and despite the fact that he has as many challengers as he does, he stands out as a stronger candidate now than he did half a year ago.
– Trump has managed to exploit all the media focus around himself, and has simply made it a choice between him and the Democrats, and cast doubt on all the criticism he receives.
The extra attention has cost him dearly, if you only look at the expenses.
According to the Washington Post, Trump’s political action committee “Save America” has spent 40 million dollars on legal fees and associated costs.
Trump is free to use the money he collects through the action committee on his legal fees, according to Tågvold Flaten.
Photo: Jose Luis Villegas / AP
– Money that would otherwise perhaps be used to build up an election campaign machinery in various states, or TV advertising, is instead used here to cover legal costs, Tågvold Flaten says.
– It says something about what is happening in the election campaign now, that a large part of the money that is collected is used for that without it being seen that he is suffering from the opinion polls.
Critical to timing
Ministry of Justice has received criticism from Trump’s supporters, among other things because the indictment has become relevant so shortly before the election campaign itself.
Høgestøl believes that it is natural that such a process takes time.
– This is the most extensive police investigation that the Ministry of Justice has ever had 1,000 people who have been prosecuted after the congress storming.
As it stands now, it will be Trump and Biden who will challenge each other in the presidential election next year.
Photo: Jose Luis Villegas / AP
– The Ministry of Justice has started with those who were physically present and worked its way up. It is also a politically sensitive matter, since Trump is likely to become the candidate for the Republicans in 2024.
This is the result the Democrats are hoping for, says Tågvold Flaten.
– In the short term, it looks paradoxically good for Trump, but in the longer term there is a reason why Joe Biden and his people are crossing their fingers that he is the one they will meet.
– It is because Biden is also a weakened and old candidate who has beaten Trump in the past. In this sense, one can try to build on it.
2023-08-01 21:40:46
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