Donald Trump was charged federally on Tuesday with attempting to overthrow the 2020 election.
Jack Smith, the special counsel who led the prosecution, accused Trump of attacking the “foundation” of American democracy.
Trump and his supporters claimed the indictment was an attempt to derail his presidential campaign and prevent him from reclaiming the White House in 2024.
Here are the key points from the 45-page indictment:
Trump is pictured on January 6, 2021, amid his efforts to overturn the election
FOUR INFORMATION OF THREE CONSPIRACY
The four charges detail three different ways Trump attempted to undermine and ultimately overturn the 2020 vote.
First, he allegedly participated in a conspiracy to defraud the United States.
This charge focuses on what prosecutors describe as the use of “dishonesty, fraud and deceit” to obstruct the election process.
Second, the indictment details the conspiracy to disrupt and block official proceedings – specifically the January 6, 2021 certification of results, which is normally formal and low-key.
And finally, Trump is accused of conspiracy to block citizens’ voting rights and have their votes counted.
The three conspiracies result in four charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Special Counsel Jack Smith (right) has led the federal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his attempts to stay in power after the 2020 election
WORK AS A TEAM
Trump is the only one charged in the indictment, but six co-conspirators are named.
They are not named in the document, but their identities were quickly established thanks to the details in the indictment.
The six include his three lawyers – Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and John Eastman.
Also among them are a Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, and an independent attorney, Kenneth Chesebro. The identity of the sixth person is still unclear.
Rudy Giuliani is one of six individuals named in the indictment as co-conspirators
Giuliani became infamous for his TV blunders, such as a 2020 press conference where his hair dye ran all over his face
Sidney Powell, a Texas attorney, is co-conspirator 3 in the indictment. She is pictured on November 19, 2020, speaking at a press conference at RNC headquarters in Washington DC alongside Rudy Giuliani
FIVE SEPARATE ATTACKS
The indictment details five different ways Trump tried to overturn the 2020 results.
First, he and his allies tried to persuade state legislators and election officials to undermine the election results by spreading claims of fraud they knew were untrue.
Second, they tried to get voters in seven key states to decline to certify the results as added to the Jan. 6, 2021, certification. The seven states were Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
He lost in Georgia by less than 12,000 votes, which was less than a percentage point.
But he lost New Mexico by about 100,000 votes, which was more than 10 percentage points.
Third, they sought to implicate the Justice Department in their White House-run plot, using the DOJ to conduct “sham investigations of election crimes” and sending letters to states on the battlefield claiming significant fraud concerns. have identified.
Fourth, great pressure was put on Mike Pence, the vice president, to use his ceremonial role on January 6 to block the official certification of the results.
And finally, Trump and his allies are accused of exploiting the chaos of the January 6 riot to try to prevent the transfer of power to Joe Biden.
Trump told Pence he was “too honest” when he pressured the VP to use his role as Speaker of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the new indictment said.
WARNINGS ABOUT HIS BEHAVIOR
The indictment details how Trump was repeatedly warned that his actions could cause massive upheaval in the country.
Mike Pence and senior government officials are among those named in the indictment for telling the then president that his requests were illegal and inappropriate.
Trump at one point told Pence, as a rebuke, that he was “too honest.”
Pence’s notes on the events appear to have been vital to the prosecutor’s team.
On Jan. 4, an unnamed co-conspirator admitted to a senior Trump adviser that “no court would support his proposal” to reject electoral votes for Biden. The adviser replied, “You are going to cause riots in the street.”
FIRST MODIFICATION RIGHTS
The indictment recognizes Trump’s right under the First Amendment to lie about the outcome of the election and say the results were fraudulent.
He also had the right to formally challenge the election results, including through recounts or audits of vote counts, or by filing lawsuits.
But he had no right to actively try to change the results.