Former US President Donald Trump is currently in the Republican primary campaign, where he is comfortably leading. AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Former US President Donald Trump has been charged with four counts in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
He is accused of conspiring to defraud the government, obstructing an official process and conspiring against the right.
Here’s a breakdown of the charges and what they could mean for the former president.
This is a machine translation of an article by our US colleagues at Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor. We welcome feedback at the end of the article.
Former US President Donald Trump was on Tuesday on four counts related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot charged.
The charges include: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official process, obstruction and attempted obstruction of an official process, and conspiracy against the rights.
This is the third criminal indictment and second federal indictment against Donald Trump. The charges stem from the extensive investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith into the deadly Capitol siege.
Below is a breakdown of the new criminal charges against Donald Trump and what they mean.
Conspiracy to cheat the government
The general conspiracy law is quite broad. But the Supreme Court has found in two 20th-century cases that “conspiracy for the purpose of interfering with, obstructing or frustrating” a legitimate government function, and interference with or obstruction of government “by deceit, subterfuge or fraud, or at least by dishonest.” Medium” prohibits.
For there to be a conviction, prosecutors would have to prove that Trump knew he had lost the 2020 election and yet was trying to overturn the result.
As the January 6 Special Committee of the US Congress asked the Justice Department to Trump in connection with the riot on the Capitol to be prosecutedconspiracy to defraud the United States was among the four recommended charges.
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“This was almost a certainty,” Neama Rahmani, a former California federal attorney, told Business Insider, adding that it’s a “safe” indictment that may also involve multiple co-conspirators.
Indeed, in a Jan. 6 court transcript last year, the committee said it had evidence that Donald Trump and his allies had “reasoned an agreement” to betray the US. They wanted her to interfere in the congressional election confirmation process, “spreading false information about voter fraud, and pressuring state officials to change state election results and federal officials to assist in this effort.”
If convicted, Trump faces up to five years in prison, Rahmani said.
Interference with an official process
These charges primarily relate to allegations that Trump attempted to obstruct the Congressional confirmation process. Donald Trump urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject voters from the states Biden won. Instead, Pence should come up with fake lists of Trump-friendly voters.
Obstruction of an official process is among the most common charges federal prosecutors have filed against other defendants in connection with the Capitol riot. The January 6 Committee also said last year that several judges “concluded that the process by Congress to count the January 6 voter count was an ‘official process’ within the meaning of the law, and each [Richter ]of them has refused to dismiss the case against the defendants on these counts.”
If Trump is convicted of these charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
However, Rahmani said that if convicted, Trump is unlikely to ever spend as many years behind bars because prosecutors will “consolidate the sentences … and choose the most serious sentence” — in this case, obstructing an official process. In addition, according to Rahmani, the judge will follow the sentencing guidelines and not impose the maximum sentence.
He added that the sentence ranges are approximate and that if convicted after a trial, Trump will likely face a four to five year sentence. And if he settles, he could be sentenced to three to four years, Rahmani said.
Conspiracy to interfere with an official process
Prosecutors are citing the same evidence in this case that they presented in the first conspiracy charge. The charges of obstructing an official process directly relate to the administration’s allegation that Donald Trump conspired to obstruct Congressional confirmation of President Joe Biden’s victory in November 2020.
The charge carries a possible 20-year prison sentence, reported the Washington Post.
conspiracy against the right
It was to be expected that Trump would be charged with conspiring to defraud the US and obstructing an official process. However, legal experts were surprised to learn that Smith’s office was considering also indicting Trump for conspiring against the law.
The law from the time of reconstruction was originally enacted to Prevent members of the Ku Klux Klan from terrorizing formerly enslaved peoplewho wished to exercise their constitutional rights.
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In Trump’s case, prosecutors want to use the law to accuse the former president of trying to rig the 2020 election results in contested states.
If convicted, Trump could face a fine or up to 10 years in prison, Rahmani said.
Rahmani added that while this point was less expected compared to the others, “Trump allegedly conspired to prevent people’s legitimate votes from being counted.”
“So it makes sense,” because “what Trump did fits within the law,” Rahmani said.
The law states that if someone dies as a result of the conspiracy, the accused faces a life sentence. A bipartisan Senate report found at least seven people died in connection with the uprising.
Read the original article Business Insider
2023-08-02 09:32:29
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