Donald Trump Indicted For Efforts To Overturn 2020 Election And Block Transfer Of Power

The Justice Department took action to hold Donald Trump accountable for an unprecedented attempt to obstruct the peaceful transfer of presidential power and endanger American democracy on Tuesday by indicting him on felony charges for working to annul the results of the 2020 election in the lead-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol.

The third criminal case against Trump, a four-count indictment, shed more light on a troubling period that has already been the focus of in-depth federal investigations and enthralling public hearings.

It details a months-long campaign of deception about the election results and claims that, even after those lies caused a disorderly uprising at the Capitol, Trump tried to capitalize on the violence by portraying it as a sign of his victory.

Even in a year of rapid-succession legal reckonings for Trump, Tuesday’s indictment, with charges including conspiring to defraud the United States government that he once led, was stunning in its allegations that a former president assaulted the “bedrock function” of democracy.

It’s the first time the defeated president, who is the early front-runner for next year’s Republican presidential nomination, is facing legal consequences for his frantic but ultimately failed effort to cling to power.

“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” said Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, whose office has spent months investigating Trump.

“It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”