1/ Trump was indicted by special counsel Jack Smith on federal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and subvert the will of American voters. “The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” Smith said after the indictment was filed. “It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant.” Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the right to vote and have that vote counted. Prosecutors allege that Trump “was determined to remain in power” after losing the 2020 election, and that he and six unindicted co-conspirators orchestrated a conspiracy to overturn the results “by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the government function by which those results are collected, counted and certified.” The six co-conspirators, who are not named in the indictment, include: Rudy Giuliani as co-conspirator 1, who promised a “trial by combat” on Jan. 6 and was “willing to pursue strategies the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not”; John Eastman as co-conspirator 2, who “devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election”; Sidney Powell as co-conspirator 3, “whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy’”; Jeffrey Clark as co-conspirator 4, who worked with Trump to “use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud”; Kenneth Chesebro as co-conspirator 5, who “assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding”; and a “political consultant” as co-conspirator 6, who “helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” This was Trump’s third indictment – and his second on federal charges. He now faces 78 charges across his three indictments: 44 federal charges and 34 state charges – all of which are felonies – in three jurisdictions. (New York Times / Washington Post / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / Politico / Bloomberg / NBC News / USA Today / ABC News / CNN)
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2023/08/01/day-924/