On Tuesday (August 1), former US President Donald Trump was charged with conspiracy to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden in 2020. The indictment was Trump’s third since March of this year when he was first charged in a case involving hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and then for illegally keeping secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago club. The former President was charged with four offenses in the most recent indictment, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct an official action. Trump is presently vying for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 election, and it is unclear how the indictments will affect his campaign.
Here are the key takeaways from Trump’s latest indictment
The indictment accused Trump of organizing an effort to get phoney slates of electors in seven states, all of which he lost, to submit their ballots to Congress on January 6, 2021, to be counted and recognized as official. “The Defendant pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; and dismiss legitimate electors,” prosecutors said. Several senior officials and advisors, including then-Vice President Mike Pence, White House counsel, and the Director of National Intelligence, told prosecutors that Trump’s statements about electoral irregularities were untrue.’
The indictment names six co-conspirators but does not name or charge them. The descriptions provided of the co-conspirators match the profiles of a group of outside lawyers and advisers that Trump turned to after his campaign and White House lawyers failed to find credible evidence of fraud and lost dozens of cases to challenge election results in swing states. After many of his top advisers advised him that his charges of fraud were unsubstantiated, Trump resorted to lawyers who were willing to fight ever more bizarre conspiracy theories and invent cutting-edge legal theories to keep him in power.
It’s unknown whether any or all of these co-conspirators will be charged
It’s unknown whether any or all of these co-conspirators will be charged, or whether they now have time to determine whether or not to cooperate with authorities. Trump allegedly told Pence at least three times in the weeks leading up to the January 6 election that he had the ability to reject the electoral results, despite Pence’s repeated denials. According to prosecutors, one of the discussions took place after Pence contacted Trump on December 25 to wish him a Merry Christmas. When Pence questioned the proposal in a phone call a week later, Trump allegedly warned him, “You’re too honest,” according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Trump “exploited” his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, where lawmakers were meeting to certify the election results, refusing his advisors’ suggestion to send a message directing rioters to leave the Capitol. The indictment cites text messages Trump’s staffers sent each other describing his push to certify fake slates of electors as “crazy” and “illegal.” The messages could serve as powerful evidence of Trump’s directions to his staff at the time.