– Today an indictment was opened, accusing Donald J Trump of conspiring to defraud the United States, says special investigator Jack Smith at a press conference on Wednesday night.
The former President of the United States, Donald Trump, is together with several allied defendants on several counts of the grand jury that has heard the evidence of special investigator Jack Smith.
Trump and his confederates are charged with trying to change the election.
Excerpt from the indictment against former US President Donald Trump.
Photo: AP
The four charges:
Conspiracy to defraud the United States Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding Obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding Conspiracy against justice
The other defendants have been described as co-conspirators.
Former President Donald Trump is indicted on four counts of trying to rig the election he lost in 2020.
The investigation, which is led by special investigator Jack Smith, has examined Trump’s allegations of election fraud and his role in the congressional storming on January 6, 2021.
Then several thousand Trump supporters marched towards 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.
– The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021 was a stand-alone attack on the seat of American democracy. It was driven by lies from the defendant. says Jack Smith.
He paid tribute to those who defended the Congress that day.
– They are heroes, patriots and the best of us. They not only defended the building and the people who were there, but they put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a person, he says
Smith concluded his brief press conference by insisting that the defendant, former President Donald Trump, is “innocent until proven guilty.”
– We will apply for a speedy trial, says Smith
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
Compare it to Nazi Germany
Donald Trump’s staff wrote on Truth Social that the indictment is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Trump believes the whole thing is a witch hunt and an attempt to hinder his attempt at the presidential election in 2024.
– The lawlessness in these debts against President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union and other authoritarian dictatorships, write Trump’s staff.
These are the legal proceedings surrounding Donald Trump:
Expand/minimize fact box
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
– This is a serious indictment for Trump is likely to become the presidential candidate for the Republicans in 2024. The indictment that came today starts by saying that Trump understood that he lost the election in 2020, but still chose to use his power to spread false stories about that he had actually won, says US expert and lawyer, Sofie Høgestøl to NRK.
She believes it will be important for the prosecution to prove that Trump had understood that he lost and still continued to oppose the election result.
– 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, says Høgestøl.
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
Other important names here are:
Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows His White House adviser, Pat Cipollone His national security adviser, Robert O’Brien His senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller.
They can give an insight into Trump’s state of mind and his thoughts behind the scenes.
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 charges have 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
#Donald #Trump #indicted
