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Former US President Donald Trump was criminally charged on Tuesday (August 1) for conspiring to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden in 2020. The development marked the third instance of Trump being indicted since March this year — he was first indicted in a case pertaining to the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and then was criminally charged for illegally possessing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
In the latest indictment, the former President has been charged with four crimes, including conspiracies to defraud the United States and to obstruct an official proceeding. Trump is currently running to be the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election and remains unclear how the indictments may impact his campaign.
Here are the key takeaways from Trump’s latest indictment:
Trump directed the plan to submit fake electors
The indictment accused Trump of organising a push to get fraudulent slates of electors in seven states, all of which he lost, to submit their votes to be counted and certified as official by Congress on January 6, 2021.
“The Defendant pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors,” prosecutors wrote.
Trump was aware claims of voting fraud were false
According to prosecutors, Trump was advised by several senior officials and advisors — including then Vice President Mike Pence, White House lawyers, and the Director of National Intelligence — that claims he had made about electoral irregularities were false.
Trump had at least six co-conspirators
The indictment lists six co-conspirators, without naming or indicting them. Based on the descriptions provided of the co-conspirators, they match the profiles of a crew of outside lawyers and advisers that Trump turned to after his campaign and White House lawyers failed to turn up credible evidence of fraud and had lost dozens of cases to challenge the election results in swing states.
After many of his core advisers told him his claims of fraud weren’t bearing out, Trump turned to lawyers who were willing to argue ever more outlandish conspiracy theories and to devise edge-of-the-envelope legal theories to keep him in power.
It’s unclear whether any or all of these co-conspirators will be indicted or whether they now have a period in which there’s an opportunity for them to decide to cooperate with prosecutors.
Trump repeatedly pressure Pence to support the plan
In the weeks leading up to the January 6 vote, Trump falsely told Pence at least three times he had the authority to reject the electoral results, even though Pence pushed back every time. One of the conversations took place after Pence called Trump on December 25 to wish him a merry Christmas, prosecutors said.
After Pence pushed back on the plan in a call a week later, Trump told him, “You’re too honest,” prosecutors said.
Trump took advantage of January 6 chaos to push plan
Prosecutors said Trump “exploited” his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, where lawmakers
were meeting to certify the election results, refusing his advisors’ suggestion to send a message directing rioters to leave the Capitol.
Prosecutors have campaign staffers’ text messages
The indictment cites text messages Trump’s staffers sent each other describing his push to certify fake slates of electors as “crazy” and “illegal.” The messages could serve as powerful evidence of Trump’s directions to his staff at the time.
(With inputs from Reuters and The New York Times)
