Washington, 2 August, 2023: The accusations originate from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s inquiry into claims that Republican front-runner Trump planned to avenge his defeat to Democratic opponent Joe Biden. As he runs for president again next year, Donald Trump was charged with a crime for the third time in four months on Tuesday. This time, the allegations stem from attempts to rescind his loss in the 2020 U.S. election.
Trump announced his Truth on Social social media site that he had heard to expect an indictment minutes before the indictment was announced.
He said, “I hear that Deranged Jack Smith will be bringing out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President in order to meddle with the Presidential Election of 2024.”
According to testimony from officials, Trump put pressure on them based on false allegations of massive voting fraud. On January 6, 2021, his followers invaded the US Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from approving Biden’s victory.
On July 18, Trump claimed to have received a letter from Smith alerting him that he was the focus of the grand jury investigation in Washington, D.C., which started on January 6. Trump was already the first American former president to face criminal charges. He has tried to portray the investigations as being a part of a political witch hunt.
These represent the second set of federal charges Smith has filed since being appointed as a special counsel by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in November.
Trump was indicted on 37 counts by a federal grand jury in Miami that was called by the special counsel in June for obstruction of justice and unauthorized retention of sensitive government documents after he left office in 2021. Trump entered a not guilty plea. He was charged with putting some of the most important American national security secrets at danger.
40 criminal counts were added last Thursday by the prosecution against Trump, accusing him of ordering staff members to remove security recordings while he was being investigated for keeping the records.
Trump was indicted by a grand jury called by the district attorney of Manhattan in March, which marked the beginning of the legal proceedings against him. In April, Trump entered a not guilty plea to 34 felony counts accusing him of fabricating financial documents relating to a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to purchase her silence before the 2016 election regarding an alleged sexual encounter with him. Trump has refuted the meeting.
As he pursues a rematch with Biden, 80, Trump, 77, tops a crowded field of Republican presidential hopefuls. In April, Biden started his reelection campaign.
Trump, who held office from 2017 until 2021, has demonstrated the ability to withstand legal issues, political controversies, and behavior on the personal front that may bring down other politicians. Many Republicans, including voters and elected leaders, have supported Trump, claiming that the accusations against him are politically motivated and that the prosecution of him is selective.
Strategists claimed that while the indictments might boost Trump in securing support from his core supporters and winning the Republican nominee, his ability to take advantage of them in the general election the following year, when he will need to win over more skeptical moderate Republicans and independents, may be more constrained.
His legal problems are getting worse in the meanwhile. In addition to the three indictments, Trump is also the subject of a fourth criminal investigation by a Georgia county prosecutor into claims that he attempted to rig the state’s 2020 election.
Trump’s Document Case
Prosecutors charged him in the documents case with improper handling of highly confidential material pertaining to anything from the American nuclear program to possible domestic attack vulnerabilities.
Trump allegedly asked his lawyers whether they could mislead the government about the existence of the records when the Justice Department tried to compel him to surrender the data, according to the indictment. In order to keep boxes containing documents from being discovered, he is accused of working with his assistant Walt Nauta, who is also charged to move the boxes about inside his residence at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Nauta has also entered a not guilty plea.
Carlos De Oliveira, a second employee who works in maintenance at Mar-a-Lago, was charged on Thursday with conspiring to obstruct justice and is suspected of assisting Trump in concealing papers.
Trump must pay $5 million in damages for sexually assaulting former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her by calling her a liar, according to a jury’s verdict in a civil complaint in federal court in Manhattan in May.
Despite the fact that he was not charged individually in that instance, his real estate firm was found guilty of tax fraud in Manhattan in 2022.
Sometimes politically sensitive matters need the appointment of special counsels, who work independently of the leadership of the Justice Department.
Smith had previously worked as the chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, been in charge of prosecuting war crimes in Kosovo, oversaw the Justice Department’s public integrity section, and served as a federal and state prosecutor in New York before being chosen by Garland to lead the two Trump-related investigations.
Trump’s role in Capital Attack
Trump supporters used a variety of weapons, including chemical sprays and riot shields, to attack police and infiltrate the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, forcing lawmakers to flee for their lives. Five people were killed during and shortly after the chaos, and 140 police officers were injured. Before the attack, Trump told supporters in an incendiary speech near the White House to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” to “stop the steal” of the election.
More than 1,000 people have been charged with riot-related crimes, including some who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Trump and his supporters were defeated in a series of election-related lawsuits that challenged the election results based on false claims of fraud. As his presidency wound down, Trump continued to push this false narrative, ignoring warnings from some of his White House advisers, former Attorney General William Barr and other officials that there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
During a joint session of Congress in 2022, a Democratic-led House of Representatives committee found that Trump “corruptly pressured” former Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count the state-by-state electoral votes that determine an election’s outcome.
The committee alleges that Trump and several of his advisers oversaw a plot to have electors in key states where Trump lost, such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, submit false documentation to Congress and the United States National Archives and Records Administration claiming that he had won those states.
As Special Counsel Jack Smith continues his investigations, the former president’s legal situation remains precarious, with potential consequences for both his political ambitions and personal reputation. The upcoming presidential race, coupled with multiple criminal investigations, creates a complex and challenging environment for Trump as he seeks to return to the highest office in the United States.
