Yahoo News Donald Trump Hit with New Jan. 6 Indictment After the 'Most Wide-Ranging' Investigation in DOJ History
Trump has been indicted on four criminal counts by a Washington, D.C. grand jury investigating the Capitol riots and efforts to overturn the 2020 election
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on four criminal counts by a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and other efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Per the indictment, Trump was charged with one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The indictment alleges that Trump, after losing the 2020 presidential election, "was determined to remain in power." The indictment also lists several unnamed co-conspirators, including four attorneys, a Justice Department official, and a political consultant who "helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification" of votes.
"So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won," it reads.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the investigation, delivered remarks in a press conference shortly after the indictment was publicized, saying, “The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant.”
He also touted the work of the law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol that day, noting that "they did not just defend a building ... they put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a people."
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Former President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office on Oct. 10, 2018This marks the third indictment of the twice-impeached former president, who was indicted two times before in 2023 — once for alleged hush money payments made to women surrounding the 2016 election, and again on federal charges related to his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
In a statement shared to his social media site Truth Social moments before the indictment was announced, Trump called Smith "deranged," writing, " “I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M. Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!”
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously called the insurrection probe "the most wide-ranging investigation in [the department's] history."
Trump is expected to answer to the charges in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. His case was assigned to Obama-appointed Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, whom MSNBC's Kyle Griffin reports is the only federal judge in Washington to give Jan. 6 rioters longer sentences than prosecutors recommended.
Chutkan ruled against Trump in his 2021 attempt to block the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots from accessing relevant records. Her ruling earned national attention for declaring that "Presidents are not kings."
The latest federal indictment is separate from that House committee's investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which wrapped in December 2022 following a series of televised public hearings throughout the summer.
That House committee formally recommended that the Department of Justice lay four criminal charges against the former president, including conspiracy to defraud the government and inciting an insurrection.
In April, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts involving alleged hush money payments to two women believed to be (though not named by prosecutors) adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.
In June, he was indicted on the federal level and accused of 37 criminal offenses: 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information (a violation of the Espionage Act); one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice; one count of withholding a document or record; one count of corruptly concealing a document or record; one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation; one count of scheme to conceal; and one count of false statements and representations. He pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.
On Thursday, a superseding indictment in the classified documents case handed down more charges: one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts.
Smith, who was appointed as special counsel of the Jan. 6 investigation by Garland in November, also led the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents and alleged efforts to obstruct that investigation.
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