‘It Is One of the Most Significant Cases in United States History’
Donald Trump's been indicted again, this time in connection to the 2020 election
Indicted for a breathtaking third time Tuesday, Donald Trump will have to appear in court on Thursday.
This time, the former president was charged in connection with interfering in the 2020 election.
The four-count indictment, the third criminal case against Trump, provided deeper insight into a dark moment that has already been the subject of exhaustive federal investigations and captivating public hearings. It chronicles a months-long campaign of lies about the election results and says that, even when those falsehoods resulted in a chaotic insurrection at the Capitol, Trump sought to exploit the violence by pointing to it as a reason to further delay the counting of votes that sealed his defeat.
Even in a year of rapid-succession legal reckonings for Trump, Tuesday’s indictment, with charges including conspiring to defraud the United States government that he once led, was stunning in its allegations that a former president assaulted the “bedrock function” of democracy. It’s the first time the defeated president, who is the early front-runner for next year’s Republican presidential nomination, is facing legal consequences for his frantic but ultimately failed effort to cling to power.
This is the second federal indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith, with joins the state charges Trump was indicted on earlier this year in New York City.
“Today an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. The indictment was issued by a grand jury of citizens here in the District of Columbia and it sets forth the crimes charged in detail,” Smith said Tuesday. “I encourage everyone to read it in full. The attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.
“As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant, targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” Smith added. “The men and women of law enforcement who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 are heroes. They are patriots, and they are the very best of us. They did not just defend a building or the people sheltering in it. They put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a people.”
Trump is due in court Thursday, a federal courthouse in Washington DC, to begin answering these latest charges against him.
“It’s not just one of the most significant indictments, it is the most significant indictment against Donald Trump. It is the most significant legal case of our lifetimes. It is one of, if not the most, significant case in United States history,” said Neal Katyal, acting solicitor general during the Obama administration. “It is up there with Dred Scott. It is up there with Brown vs. Board of Education, because this goes to the essential question of who we are as a people. Do we let someone, the president, act in this this way?
“And that’s why, going to your question about the detail, why is the detail so important? Because Jack Smith has to do two things, and he has to do them and prove under the highest standard of the law, which is all allied against him, called beyond a reasonable doubt,” Katyal added. “He’s got to prove two things to this jury of twelve people, and if any one of the jurors says I disagree, Donald Trump goes free. So, he has to win all 12.”
Trump, himself — as always — railed against this latest indictment. Trump compared it to persecution in Nazi Germany, which brought a sharp rebuke by CNN host Jake Tapper.
“Obviously, comparing this to Nazi Germany is beyond the pale in terms of offensiveness and ignorance,” Tapper said, on-camera.
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