On January 6, the Justice Department charged Donald Trump with committing a third criminal felony.

A Washington grand jury decided on August 1 to indict the former President on four counts related to his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election and his involvement in the activities leading up to the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. This was the third criminal charge against Donald Trump. The case sets up yet another complex and costly judicial battle as Trump vies for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

The most recent indictment, which the Justice Department revealed on Tuesday and names six unnamed co-conspirators, follows a nearly eight-month investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose team had questioned a number of notable members of Trump’s inner circle, including the former Vice President Mike Pence, regarding Trump’s attempts to sabotage the peaceful transfer of power on January 6. The four charges include conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, fraud against the government, and conspiracy to suppress the right to vote.

“Each of these conspiracies—which built upon the widespread mistrust the Defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud—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,” according to the indictment.

Shortly after the DOJ made public the claims, Trump called the indictment “fake” and accused Smith of seeking to “interfere” with the 2024 election in a post on Truth Social. He said, “Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago?” in his letter. Why did they wait so long? Especially in light of the fact that they wanted to do it during my campaign.

The government has mandated that Trump appear in federal court in Washington, D.C., on August 3, according to the Justice Department.

According to Smith on Tuesday, “the assault on our country’s Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.” “We’re still looking into more folks. In this matter, my office will ask for a speedy trial so that a jury of regular people can consider our evidence and reach a decision.

The indictment accuses Trump of regularly making false claims about electoral fraud even though he knew they were inaccurate. There was allegedly no widespread fraud that might have changed the outcome of the election, according to a number of administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, senior DOJ officials, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, and senior White House attorneys.

Nevertheless, Trump persisted in trying to hold onto his position of power despite this. An important part of the charges, according to the indictment, stems from Trump’s attempts to submit false elector slates in key swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which supported Joe Biden.

It also details private phone conversations between Trump and Pence in the days prior to the attack on January 6, during which Pence allegedly took “contemporaneous notes” of the conversations. Trump apparently warned Pence he was “too honest” in one of them after Pence stated he lacked the authority to unilaterally reject the election results. The indictment claims that John Eastman, a Trump supporter, also convinced Pence to meddle with the Electoral College vote. When a senior assistant warned that such a move would spark riots in the streets, Eastman allegedly responded that “violence had previously been necessary in the nation’s history where violence was necessary to protect the republic.”

In reaction to the accusation, Pence issued a statement on Tuesday that included the following quote: “On January 6th, Former President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. I choose the Constitution, and I’ll stick with it always.

The indictment asserts that Trump took advantage of the violence by refusing to authorize a message directing protesters to evacuate the facility by the time his efforts to void the election had accelerated on January 6. Even after the gathering dispersed hours later, Trump persisted in insisting that the election was rigged. The indictment states that “the White House counsel called the defendant to ask him to withdraw any objections and allow the certification.” In “Defendant declined,”

The charge is merely the most recent of many legal concerns that Trump is now dealing with. Smith has also been accused of hoarding national security secrets and obstructing government efforts to recover them in a separate special counsel investigation. Trump was accused of fabricating financial records to conceal payments to a porn star in April in New York by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Trump could soon face yet another criminal trial in Georgia, where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has called a grand jury to look into the former President’s alleged attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.

Normally, a prominent presidential candidate’s chances of gaining the office would be catastrophic if they were the target of numerous criminal accusations. Trump, however, has benefited politically from his ambiguous legal situation inside the constraints of the Republican primary. As soon as Trump learned of his first two indictments, he raised millions of dollars and saw a rise in his support. Since then, most national polls show him leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by more than 30 points as the undisputed front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2024.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Trump campaign said that “the lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes.” After consulting with experienced lawyers, President Trump has constantly acted in line with the law and the Constitution.

Trump remarked on Truth Social before to the release of the most recent indictment, “I have the right to protest an Election that I am fully convinced was Rigged and Stolen.”

According to Jessica Roth, a professor at Cardozo School of Law and a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, that won’t be a compelling enough legal defense. She says, “You can’t use unlawful means even if you believe you won the election, no matter how sure you are that you did.” It is not a strong legal justification. According to Roth, it will “significantly” help the prosecution’s case if they can demonstrate that Trump knew he had lost the election yet continuing to make false comments.

In reaction to the allegations, Trump has focused on stirring up racial tension among MAGA supporters. At his rallies, he frequently reminds the crowd, “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you.” He has also claimed, without offering any evidence, that the prosecutions are a politically motivated witch hunt designed to bring down the man preventing President Biden from winning a second term.

Out of all the indictments handed down so far, Smith’s most recent one may be the one that Trump’s critics have been clamoring for the most. Democrats and Never Trump Republicans have rejoiced in seeing Trump face any type of legal consequence after 50 years of evading investigations. They have, however, specifically demanded an explanation from him for his involvement in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 and his attempts to obstruct the orderly transition of power.

During primetime hearings that drew more than 20 million viewers last summer and fall, the historic Jan. 6 Committee probed Trump’s multifarious attempts to rig the 2020 election. The impartial, nine-member panel put up a lot of effort to show that Trump was mostly to blame for the deadly coup attempt. The committee concluded in its final report that the events of January 6 were mostly caused by the late President Donald Trump. “None of the events on January 6 would have happened without him.”

The panel’s members unanimously voted to file criminal charges against Trump with the Justice Department in December following an 18-month investigation and 10 open hearings. The committee determined that there was enough evidence to prove at least four criminal accusations, including obstructing an official investigation, conspiring to deceive the government, fabricating information, and aiding in an uprising. Even though the statement had no legal support, it was the first time a congressional committee had made one against a previous president.

The Justice Department’s investigation into what occurred on January 6 was ongoing at the time of the referral; by that point, Smith had been named as special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland following Trump’s announcement of his candidacy for president in November.

Trump has long asserted that systemic forces are using the multiple criminal investigations launched against him as a means to delegitimize him. The official launch of Trump’s campaign came one week after the midterm elections, prompting some to think that this was done to complicate matters for the prosecutors, who have a long-standing policy of attempting to prevent even the appearance of involvement in elections. Trump’s critics think he wants to prolong the process until after the election. If he is successful, he may then attempt to have the federal cases against him dismissed by his attorney general or seek a pardon for himself.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has, however, postponed the trial in the case involving the secret materials until May 20, 2024. On March 25, 2024, the “hush money” trial is scheduled to start in New York, just before the primary elections.

Some seasoned federal prosecutors believe Trump’s delay strategies are likely to be successful, even though it is questionable whether Trump could go to trial for the claims from January 6 before election day. Years-long delays are typical in most white-collar criminal investigations; it will be very challenging to hasten the high-stakes and unusual prosecutions of a former President who is also the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024.

Legal experts contend that even if Trump is found guilty by the special counsel, his election as president would not be invalidated by the charges leveled against him. According to the Constitution, anyone who is a natural-born citizen, is at least 35 years old, and has resided in the country for 14 years is qualified to run for president. There is no legal obstacle prohibiting Trump from continuing his presidential campaign despite being charged with a felony, even if he were to be imprisoned.

The Tuesday indictment is the first step in a drawn-out legal process for Smith and his attorneys. Roth continues, “This is going to be a challenging case. Even more challenging to defend and win than the Florida papers case. There will be a ton of evidence and a very complicated story to tell in order to justify the atrocities and the former President’s actions. It is much more extensive than the Florida charges, which are quite constrained.

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