WASHINGTON (AP) — Follow along for live updates on the Justice Department's indictment of former President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The charges focus on schemes by Trump and his allies to subvert the transfer of power and keep him in office despite his loss to Joe Biden.
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WHAT TO KNOW
— Trump has now been indicted for the third time. Here's where all the investigations stand
— Trump also was indicted in June on charges that he illegally hoarded classified documents
— Mar-a-Lago's property manager is the latest Trump staffer ensnared in his legal turmoil
— Special counsel Jack Smith has a long career of confronting corruption
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JUSTICE'S INVESTIGATION OF TRUMP LARGEST IN DEPARTMENT'S HISTORY, ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND SAYS
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department’s investigation of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election “followed the facts and the law wherever they lead.”
Garland made brief comments in Philadelphia on Tuesday shortly after Trump was indicted for the second time by the federal government he once ran.
Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith last year to take over the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and Trump’s efforts overturn the election results.
Garland said the investigation, which led to Trump facing four charges of conspiracy and obstruction, was the largest in the department’s history.
The Justice Department has also charged Trump with 40 counts related to the mishandling of classified documents. Smith also oversaw that investigation.
TRUMP TO MAKE THIRD COURT APPEARANCE AS A CRIMINAL DEFENDANT ON THURSDAY
For the third time, Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in a courtroom as a criminal defendant.
Trump is due in court Thursday before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington for the charges he faces related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump faces four counts of conspiracy in the indictment released Tuesday, including “conspiracy to defraud” the United States.
In April, Trump appeared in a New York state courtroom to plead not guilty to 34 charges in a hush money scheme stemming from the 2016 election.
In June, he appeared in federal court in Florida to plead not guilty to 37 charges that he illegally hoarded classified documents. Last week, prosecutors filed additional charges in that case, alleging that he asked a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida home to obstruct a federal probe into the records. He now faces 40 counts in that case.
Trump is the first former president to face an indictment and the first former U.S. president to be prosecuted by the government he once ran.
JAN. 6 ATTACK ON U.S. CAPITOL “FUELED BY LIES” FROM TRUMP, SPECIAL COUNSEL SAYS
Justice Department Special counsel Jack Smith, whose team of prosecutors questioned senior Trump administration officials before a grand jury in Washington, said that the Jan, 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was “fueled by lies” from Donald Trump.
Smith made a brief statement in Washington shortly after the indictment against the former president was released Tuesday.
“The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” Smith said, adding that the law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol that day were heroes.
Smith said he’d seek a speedy trial for the former president.
Trump is due in court Thursday before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
TRUMP SOUGHT TO CREATE "ATMOSPHERE OF MISTRUST AND ANGER," INDICTMENT SAYS
The indictment filed against Donald Trump lays out how again and again, Republican state officials, Justice Department officials and the president’s own campaign staff refuted his false claims about the 2020 election — including those “on whom he relied for candid advice on important matters.”
For example, Trump claimed more than 10,000 dead people voted in Georgia four days after that state’s top elections official told him that was not true. He contended that there were 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania after his own Acting Attorney General told him that was not true. He alleged more than 30,000 non-citizens voted in Arizona even though his own campaign manager said that was false.
Prosecutors also described a Jan. 3, 2021, meeting between Trump and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley on an overseas national security issue.
Milley and another adviser recommended that Trump not take action on the issue because inauguration day was only 17 days away. “Yeah, you’re right, it’s too late for us,” Trump said, according to the indictment. “We’re going to give that to the next guy.”
Trump knew his election lies were false, but pushed them anyway to create an “intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger” and “erode public faith in the administration of the election,” the indictment alleges.
MONTHSLONG EFFORT TO CHANGE RESULTS BECAME CRIMINAL, INDICTMENT SAYS
Federal prosecutors said in their indictment of Trump that he had the right to formally challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election but his behavior became criminal over a monthslong effort that attempted to discount legitimate voters and subvert the results.
Trump had a right, like every American, “to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won” prosecutors said in the court documents filed Tuesday.
“He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election, and to file lawsuits — which he did. But shortly after the election, Trump also broke the law by pursuing illegal ways to overturn the election," the indictment said.
The indictment describes a monthslong plan, from Nov. 14, 2020 to Jan. 20, 2021, as Trump and the others conspired to defraud the United States.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election,” the indictment said.
PROSECUTORS: FAKE ELECTOR RECRUITMENT WAS ATTEMPT TO OBSTRUCT THE VOTE
Federal prosecutors allege that the efforts by Trump and his allies to recruit fake electors after his loss in the 2020 presidential election attempted “to obstruct the electoral vote through deceit of state officials.”
In the indictment filed Tuesday, prosecutors said Trump and his unnamed co-conspirators knowingly made false claims of election fraud to convince officials in seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to submit fraudulent slates of electors.
Electors are people appointed by state parties to certify the winner of the popular vote in their state.
Prosecutors said that after Trump’s attempts to deceive state officials “met with repeated failure,” he began in early December 2020 to “marshal individuals who would have served” as his electors in those states and to send false certifications stating that they were legitimate presidential electors.
On Dec. 14, 2020, the day that the legitimate electors met in all 50 states, prosecutors said Trump and an unnamed co-conspirator directed “sham proceedings” of fraudulent electors in the seven targeted states.
The indictment alleges that some fake electors were tricked and falsely led to believe that their votes would be used only if Trump was successful in his legal challenges in their state. It also alleges that Trump attempted to use the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations” and send a letter to certain states that falsely claimed investigators had identified concerns about the election.
TRUMP LIED EVEN AFTER BEING WARNED BY TOP OFFICIALS, INDICTMENT SAYS
Trump repeatedly lied about the election even after being warned off his false statements by top government officials, according to the indictment filed against him Tuesday.
Prosecutors cited an example in Georgia, where Trump claimed more than 10,000 dead people voted in four days after that state’s top elections official told him that was not true. Trump lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.
The Republican contended that there were 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania after his own acting attorney general told him that was not true. He alleged more than 30,000 noncitizens voted in Arizona even though his own campaign manager said that was false.
TRUMP CAMPAIGN CALLS LATEST INDICTMENT PART OF ‘WITCH HUNT’
Trump’s campaign issued a statement calling the third indictment of the former president “nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter” in what the campaign characterized as a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
In a lengthy statement issued as the indictment was released Tuesday, Trump’s campaign complained about the timing, asking why it had taken prosecutors two-and-a-half years to bring the charges, in the middle the campaign and as Republicans ramp up their investigations into President Joe Biden.
“The answer is, election interference!” the statement said.
The campaign stated that “President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution, with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys.”
PROSECUTORS SAY TRUMP KNEW HIS LIES ABOUT ELECTION WERE FALSE
Federal prosecutors said in the indictment filed Tuesday that Trump knew his lies about his loss in the 2020 presidential election were false but pushed them anyway.
Prosecutors said that for two months after his loss on Nov. 3, 2020, the Republican spread lies to create an “intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger” and “erode public faith in the administration of the election.”
Trump has been charged with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6, obstruction and conspiracy against the right to vote.
Trump is the only defendant charged in the indictment, but it cites six unnamed co-conspirators, including an attorney “who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies” that Trump’s 2020 campaign attorneys would not.
Another co-conspirator is an attorney whose “unfounded claims of election fraud” Trump privately acknowledged to others sounded “crazy,” the indictment said.
TRUMP CHARGED ON FOUR COUNTS, INCLUDING CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD
Trump has been charged by the Justice Department on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The indictment filed Tuesday night is the third criminal case filed against the former president and current frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential race.
The 45-page indictment said Trump after his 2020 loss was “determined to remain in power” and perpetrated conspiracies that targeted a “bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
A Trump spokesperson likened the new indictment to “Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” calling them “un-American.”
TRUMP INDICTED FOR EFFORTS TO OVERTURN 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Trump has been charged by the Justice Department for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The indictment focuses on schemes by Trump and his allies to subvert the transfer of power and keep him in office despite his loss to Joe Biden. It’s the third criminal case brought against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
The criminal case comes as Trump leads the field of Republicans seeking their party’s 2024 presidential nomination. It centers on the turbulent two months between Trump’s November 2020 election loss and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. Trump denies doing anything wrong.
Shortly before the indictment was unsealed, Trump accused Smith’s team of trying to interfere with the election with what he called “yet another Fake Indictment.”
“Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long?” he asked on his Truth Social site. “Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!”
