Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith. The indictment accuses Trump of orchestrating a plot to overturn the 2020 election results and stay in power after losing.
The charges against him include conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The indictment alleges that for over two months after the November 3, 2020 election, Trump spread false claims of outcome-determinative fraud and insisted that he had actually won the election.
Federal prosecutors assert that Trump knowingly disseminated these lies to give them a semblance of legitimacy, create a climate of mistrust and anger, and undermine public confidence in the election’s administration.
“So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won,” the indictment reads.
“These claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false,” it adds, referring to Trump. “But the defendant disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”
Read the indictment below:
The White House declined to comment on the indictment of Trump, directing inquiries to the Department of Justice. White House spokesman Ian Sams emphasized that the Justice Department conducts its criminal investigations independently, thereby upholding the department’s autonomy.
President Biden was at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, when the grand jury handed up the indictment.
In response to the news, Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign organization accused the Biden administration of election interference. The campaign issued a statement asserting that this indictment is part of a corrupt pattern by the Biden family and the weaponized Department of Justice to meddle with the 2024 Presidential Election.
They claimed that President Trump is the clear frontrunner, leading by significant margins. The statement expressed confidence that these investigations will fail and Trump will be re-elected to the White House to address issues of abuse, incompetence, and corruption that they believe have reached unprecedented levels in the country.
“This is nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by substantial margins,” the campaign said in a statement.
“These un-American witch hunts will fail and President Trump will be re-elected to the White House so he can save our Country from the abuse, incompetence, and corruption that is running through the veins of our Country at levels never seen before,” the statement added.
