Donald Trump has been indicted in special counsel’s 2020 election interference probe

CleoTheWizard@beehaw.org to World News@beehaw.org – 476 points – Donald Trump has been indicted in special counsel's 2020 election interference probe | CNN Politics
cnn.com

Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury on four criminal counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

“Shortly after election day, the Defendant also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results,” the indictment states.

The newest case against Trump strikes at what’s seen as the former president’s most serious betrayal of his constitutional duties, when his efforts to remain in the White House after losing the 2020 election sought to undermine US democracy and the long-held American tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power.

The plot to overturn the 2020 election shattered presidential norms and culminated in an unthinkable physical assault on the Capitol on January 6, as Congress met to validate President Joe Biden’s victory. Even before that, Trump engaged in an unprecedented pressure campaign toward state election workers and lawmakers, Justice Department officials and even his own vice president to persuade them to throw out the 2020 results.

Trump has been summoned to appear before a magistrate judge in Washington, DC, federal court at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, the Justice Department announced.

The four counts are: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

Six unindicted co-conspirators were included. Among the six are four unnamed attorneys who allegedly aided Trump in his effort to subvert the 2020 election results. Also included is one unnamed Justice Department official who “attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.”

Smith also mentions an unnamed “political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”

Smith’s move to bring charges will test whether the criminal justice system can be used to hold Trump to account for his post-election conduct after he was acquitted in his impeachment trial related to his actions that day.

The indictment is the second time in two months that Smith has brought charges against Trump. In June, Trump was charged with retention of classified documents and conspiracy with a top aide to hide them from the government and his own attorneys. And separately in March, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on state charges of falsifying business records.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases – and is likely to do so again when he’s arraigned on the latest charges.

The new special counsel indictment comes as Trump remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The first two indictments have done little to impact his standing in the race.

Trump’s March indictment marked the first time in US history that a former president had faced criminal charges. Now there are three separate, concurrent cases where the president is facing felony allegations, which are all going to play out as Trump seeks to return to the White House in 2024 following his loss to Biden in 2020.

Fake electors plot hatched after 2020 election was unprecedented attempt to subvert Electoral College The so-called fake electors plot was an unprecedented attempt to subvert the Electoral College process by replacing electors that Biden had rightfully won with illegitimate GOP electors.

Trump supporters in seven key states met on December 14, 2020, and signed fake certificates, falsely proclaiming that Trump actually won their state and they were the rightful electors. They submitted these fake certificates to Congress and to the National Archives, in anticipation that their false claims would be embraced during the Electoral College certification on January 6, 2021.

At the time, their actions were largely dismissed as an elaborate political cosplay. But it eventually became clear that this was part of an orchestrated plan.

Senior Trump campaign officials orchestrated the fake electors plot and directly oversaw the state-by-state mechanics – linking Trump’s campaign apparatus to what originally looked like a hapless political stunt by local Trump supporters.

Federal investigators have subpoenaed the fake electors across the country, sent FBI agents to interview witnesses about their conduct, and recently granted immunity to two fake electors from Nevada to secure their grand jury testimony.

In Michigan, the state’s attorney general charged the 16 fake electors who signed certificates falsely claiming Trump won Michigan in the 2020 election with multiple felonies. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also expected to ask a grand jury this month to bring charges related to efforts in Georgia to subvert the election results.

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This seemed to be popular information when I posted it (ahem) "elsewhere". Thought it might be welcome to have here.

If you're trying to keep track of where we're at in the Trump prosecutions:

Updated 8/1/2023

Washington, D.C. - 4 felonies, January 6th Election Interference
Investigation
Indictment <- You Are Here
Arrest
Trial
Conviction
Sentencing

Georgia - Election Interference
Investigation <- You Are Here
2 new grand juries impaneled 7/11/2023.
Indictment - July 11th to September 1st.
(Grand Jury work expected July 31 to Aug. 18)
Arrest
Trial
Conviction
Sentencing

New York State - 34 felonies, Stormy Daniels Payoff
Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - March 25th, 2024
Conviction
Sentencing

Florida - 40 felonies, Federal documents charges
Investigation
Indictment
Original indictment was for 37 felonies.
3 new felonies were added on July 27, 2023.
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - May 20, 2024
Conviction
Sentencing

Other grand juries, such as for the documents at Bedminster, have not been announced.

The E. Jean Carroll trial for sexual assault and defamation where Trump was found liable and ordered to pay $5 million before immediately defaming her again resulting in a demand for $10 million is not listed as it's a civil case and not a crimimal one.

Thank you for putting this together, very helpful to keep track of everything

This is huge, he might actually go to prison!

Even if convicted I'll be surprised if he spends more than a week in prison. It will end up being house arrest in Mar-a-Lago under the pretense of poor health or providing info on his international backers.

Much like Lev Parnas is on house arrest street only a few months of actual prison.

I doubt even for health reasons, probably more for security reasons. Secret Service securing a prison would be a nightmare for anything short of splitary confinement. For that reason alone, he'd probably be under house arrest.

I get that times have changed but I would be fine with him having an Al Capone cell.

And it would probably be easier for secret service to secure than the notoriously insecure Mar-a-lago.

But yeah, I'm not getting my hopes up for this one. Dude was born to filthy lucre and will die surrounded by gaudy filthy lucre.

If convincted of even one of these felonies, he should be stripped of all Secret Service protection. He should go to a state prison if New York convicts him (like Epstein) or to a federal prison if the US convicts him. No more special privileges for criminals. Al Capone, as well as other prominent government officials in Illinois, went to prison. Trump is a citizen now and should have equal treatment to serve his time.

He should indeed. But if we're talking about should, then the emoluments clause should have been enough for none of this to have ever happened. And the base level ethical requirements to be President should have been law. And the American people should have demanded their lawmakers and officials enforced the law and legislated for white collar crime penalties. There were a millions shoulds before we got to this hot mess.

But here we are with a logistical issue of protecting a person for life from others, while similtaneously protecting others from him. Modernity is wild.

Throw him in the hole and don’t let him out. That’s secure.

Once he's in prison for treason he doesn't get secret service protection anymore. He is up for the death penalty for christ's sake.

No idea if this is 100% accurate but howstuffworks says it would take an act of Congress, a presidential executive order, or Trump voluntarily declining for him to lose secret service. I don't think those will happen.

Lol would be savage if Biden drops an executive order on his way out of the Oval Office.

Republicans would endlessly jerk off about that, though. They already say the most insanely stupid things about Biden, so if he was “hey, trump should be executed” or whatever they would beyond lose their shit.

Don't underestimate his stupidity! I'm imagining a conversation like this:

Trump: "I need to get out! I need to go to Russia!"

Sycophant assistant: "You can't do that while the Secret Service is protecting you!"

Trump: "I'll just revoke Secret Service protection! Problem solved!"

Imagine how sad Trimp would feel if Putin was assassinated or deposed.

Leavenworth seems like it would work out just fine.

Yeah some kind of super max makes the most sense. He will be secure as fuck.

Sadly this will never happen.

Supermax shouldn't be a punishment, only a necessity. Nobody deserves that.

If he wants to claim he can’t serve in regular prison due to security concerns, then it’s a necessity. He will be very secure there.

Well no, a gigantic POS traitor definitely deserves that. Years of solitary have happened to people for much, much less.

Years of solitary have happened to people for much, much less.

They didn't deserve that.

Then get elected while in prison... now that would be hilarious.

Everyone speculates that this would be possible but I don't think it would be in reality. If he can't be present in the states holding primaries to debate the other Republican candidates there's a very slim chance he'll win the nomination. Especially if all his campaign funds are going to legal bills.

Who would they vote for instead, though? DeSantis is a twerp and the other competitors are a non-white guy called Shwamasharmy or something, and Chris Christie. Troomp already has all the name recognition and publicity he needs, plus conservatives would be so upset if he had to face accountability that they’d rally around it. They are definitely stupid enough to elect a traitor who was currently in prison.

If convicted of the charges, he would be barred from holding ANY public office under the 14th Ammendment

I would love to see this happen. He deserves it. But I honestly and truly believe that if he's convicted and sentenced, it will spark a civil war. The right wing militias see him essentially as a god, and the rest of the country as some twisted, satanic cabal that has invented things to charge him with just to try to silence him and, by extension, them as well. MAGAts are already violent and murderous. A criminal conviction will just be the last straw

There aren’t enough people of that mind to really have a civil war… it will just be more loser right wing Christian terrorism.

At the time, their actions were largely dismissed as an elaborate political cosplay. But it eventually became clear that this was part of an orchestrated plan.

Speak for yourself, CNN! Your enlightened centrist dipshit asses might've been fooled, but that does not mean those of us who aren't brainless were!

Writing "We grossly underestimated the threat posed by Trump, and are partly responsible for enabling him" instead would upset CNN's lawyers too much. It's easier to just blame your audience for believing you.

And these are the pricks who gave him an hour long show entirely about him in prime time not too long ago. It’s like they thought “what is the most awful thing we could do to our audience and the nation? Oh!”

People dismissing things as “theater” has been pretty annoying for about 20 years now at least.

Where is the guy that posts the "you are here" for all of the criminal cases into Trump? I need my progress report!

I hit the "Politics" communities first, didn't occur to me to hit the "News" communities. Still trying to unlearn lessons from that other place. :)

Hahaha no problem! I appreciate you doing what you do! I love your little updates. It brings me joy each time I see one of the cases progress to the next step

Great job keeping track of this, thanks

I don’t really care what happens to him as long as he never wins another election. What worries me is all the people that voted for his reelection and can’t see what a massive fraud he is.

I care. I want him to suffer the consequences for the numerous crimes and atrocities he's committed.

Fuck that he needs to suffer appropriate consequences for breaking the law. Being content with just him never winning an election again tells others like him that they won't be punished for their actions, and just have to be more subtle next time.

Because there will be a next time.

I agree. It's scary to have these people voting. It's not that they can't see he's a fraud. These people aren't all that dumb. It's that they are unwilling to change because they are getting what they want. They are voting for the candidates that represent them. They are owning the libs and proud of it.

It blows me away that people hear this obviously criminal, whiny total douchebag and think “wow, he’s so manly! I really want this guy running the country, too! I’m going to hang a flag with his name on my truck!!”. Like, what in the world of fuck is wrong with these people? I don’t even necessarily disagree with all their political beliefs, but why this orange loser?

that brings the total lawsuits related to his time in office up to 3 I think..

I think it depends on how you’re counting. I think the number of charges he’s been indicted on is nearing 80. There’s the NY fraud case, the stolen secret documents case, and now this election interference case. I’m not sure what else is pending.

But you also have another defamation case for E Jean Carol, who successfully sued him a few months ago after which he doubled down. I think I remember a few other cases going forward. On the other hand, cases he tried to bring against companies like CNN have been dismissed.

It’s good he’s getting his fans to pay for his legal fees under the guise of still being able to win the 2020 election, because every dollar Trump puts into a lawyer’s pocket is one less that goes to elect republicans to congress or state office. He’s basically setting piles of GOP money on fire while they watch.

That money is still going somewhere. The donors are getting poorer and whoever is receiving the legal fees is getting more powerful.

Plus the lawyers defending Trump must seriously be bottom feeders. It’s not the kind of lawyers that is good for society.

As much as I hate Trump, attorneys need to be willing to represent everyone in order for us to actually have a working justice system. It might be nice to imagine Trump trying to bumble through representing himself and fucking it up royally, but it's less fun when it's some poor sod who's been wrongfully accused, but who local attorneys are prejudiced against.

It’s certainly going somewhere, and I am in no way, shape, or form saying that Trump’s lawyers are true and worthy of their wealth. I am saying I’d rather a Trumpy lawyer spend the money on another boat than have that money go into the campaign to re-elect Bobo or MTG. It’s like watching Steve Bannon’s friend use the money they grifted from the MAGAs to crowdfund The Wall instead a) spend the money buying himself a yacht and b) openly boast about ripping the MAGAs off in order to buy the boat. I’d rather the money go to a worthy cause, but if we can’t have that I’m happy they’re setting fire to it rather than putting it into elections.

State charges from Georgia are likely coming this week, too, from all the recent headlines.

I’ve lost track of the number of indictments. I think we’re at about 80-ish? I’m really hoping we can get it to a nice round 100 if we can get additional charges for perjury, violating court orders, and the like.

But Georgia is on my mind.

Three indictments so far, each of which cover multiple crimes that were part of the same general activity. Multiple instances of the same crime, called charges, are totaled as separate "counts". For example, the latest indictment has 4 charges of 4 different crimes, each of which only has one count. Compare that to the second indictment in the secret documents case, which has 31 counts of the same crime ("willful retention of national defense information"), plus a few more counts of additional crimes.

You are correct that there are currently 78* individual instances of crime which the former President has been arrested and charged for committing. That was a crazy sentence to type, but here we are.

Hopefully that helps make a bit more sense.

* Sorry for paywalled article, but it was the only source I could find quickly to confirm the current charge total.

Yep, that helps!

Of course, Georgia is expecting to make an announcement by the end of the month.

You might be interested in this wikipedia page which is keeping record of all the lawsuits Trump brought against others, and the lawsuits brought against Trump during his time as President.