AFPTrump at a previous Republican party meeting last week
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 00:07
Former US President Donald Trump has been charged with attempting to influence the 2020 election results, including his role in the storming of the US House of Representatives on January 6, 2021.
The indictment says Trump was “determined to stay in power.” He refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory and instead insisted that he had won the election. Those claims, the indictment said, were “false and Trump knew they were false.” He also tried to have the result declared invalid, including by filing numerous lawsuits and putting pressure on members of electoral commissions.
Trump continued to widely disseminate those claims “to make his deliberately false claims appear legitimate, to fuel distrust and anger in society, and to erode public confidence in the election process.”
Special counsel Jack Smith says these lies by Trump fueled the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Members of Congress were ratifying the election results that day when Trump supporters stormed the House of Representatives. They had to run or hide. Five people were killed in the storming of the Capitol.
Reuters Special Prosecutor Jack Smith explains the indictment
In total, Trump is indicted on four counts, including three conspiracies. The first is a conspiracy to undermine the US through fraud and deceit and to obstruct the counting of votes and the ratification of the election results.
The second is a conspiracy to thwart official proceedings. This is the meeting in the Capitol where the result of the election was ratified.
The third charge is that he thwarted the ratification of Joe Biden’s election win. This likely refers to the Capitol storming where Biden’s win would be endorsed by Vice President Mike Pence that day.
Finally, he is charged with undermining citizens’ rights in an attempt to overturn the election results.
In addition to Trump, six others are also involved in the conspiracies, their names have not been disclosed and they have not yet been charged.
Donald Trump is due to appear in court in Washington DC on August 3 at 4 p.m. local time.
Correspondent US Marieke de Vries
“These are very serious charges, amounting to thwarting the fundamental rights of the American people by undermining Americans’ voting rights.”
“The previous two charges against Trump were about paying hush money to a porn actress and withholding classified state documents, both serious, but not comparable to these charges that come close to treason. It is also called a historic , but also called a tragic day for American democracy.
Trump responded shortly after announcing the indictment. In a statement, his campaign team called the indictment “the latest corrupt chapter” of current President Biden to interfere in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
Trump’s team also speaks again of a witch hunt, saying that “the lawlessness of these prosecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany”.
In mid-July, Trump said he expected to be arrested in the investigation into the 2021 storming of the Capitol.
More criminal cases
In addition to this major case on January 6, 2021, further criminal investigations into Trump are ongoing. There is an indictment in the case of Stormy Daniels about paying hush money to the porn actress, for which he was charged at the end of March this year.
A second criminal case was added in June when he was arraigned in a federal court in Miami. There he was told that he has been charged with taking secret documents from the White House to his residence in Mar-a-Lago near Miami.
2023-08-01 22:07:43
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