Trump indicted on four counts - attempt to overturn election

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Trump has been charged with four federal counts, including 'conspiracy to defraud' the U.S.
Trump has been charged by the Department of Justice with the following four counts:
A conspiracy to defraud the United States "by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election," according to the special counsel's office. This count carries a 5-year maximum sentence.

A conspiracy to impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified. This count carries a 20-year maximum sentence.

A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted. This count carries a 10-year maximum sentence.

Obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct and impede, the certification of the electoral vote. This count carries a 20-year maximum sentence.

Trump summoned to appear on Thursday
Trump is expected to be arraigned at the D.C. district court on Thursday, Aug. 3 before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya.

Indictment says there are six co-conspirators
There are six unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators in the indictment.

"The Defendant and co-conspirators used knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendant's opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant," the indictment says.

Trump case assigned to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan
The Trump case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, according to the court docket. Chutkan, an Obama appointee, is the only federal judge in Washington, D.C., who has sentenced Jan. 6 defendants to sentences longer than the government had requested.

Prosecutors argue Trump inflamed violence at the Capitol after it started to unfold
Under the first count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., federal prosecutors argue that once violence began at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Trump only inflamed the situation.

The indictment says that Trump continued to blast out claims of election fraud after the riot began unfolding.

"As violence ensued, the Defendant and co-conspirators exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims," prosecutors wrote in the indictment.

Prosecutors list high-profile officials who told Trump there was no mass election fraud
Prosecutors say a number of high-profile government officials had informed Trump repeatedly that there was no evidence to support his claims of election fraud in 2020, including:

Vice President Mike Pence

Senior leaders at the Department of Justice appointed by Trump

The director of national intelligence

The agency at the Department of Homeland Security that oversees cybersecurity

Senior White House attorneys selected by Trump

State legislators and officials, some of whom were Trump's allies

State and federal courts

The indictment also pointed out that senior staffers on Trump's campaign informed him that on Nov. 7, 2020, he had only a 5 to 10% chance of "prevailing in the election."

Rudy Giuliani has not been contacted by special counsel, spokesperson says
A spokesperson for Giuliani told NBC News today that the former New York City mayor and ex-Trump attorney "has not been contacted by the Special Counsel's office, and he has no reason to believe that he will."

John Eastman is unindicted co-conspirator No. 2, his lawyer says
In a statement to NBC News, an attorney for John Eastman confirmed that his client was unindicted co-conspirator No. 2 from today's indictment.

Eastman was as a member of Trump's legal team that attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He authored a memo that claimed then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn Joe Biden's victory during the Jan. 6, 2021, proceedings in Congress.

Eastman's attorney, Harvey Silverglate, reiterated that he plans to send a memo to the special counsel outlining why he believes Eastman is innocent.

Jack Smith says Jan. 6 was 'unprecedented assault' on American democracy
Special Counsel Jack Smith just delivered brief remarks on the indictment.

Speaking for roughly three minutes, he referred to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as "an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy."

"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. "

Smith said that his office would seek a "speedy trial."

Special Counsel Jack Smith just delivered brief remarks on the indictment.

Speaking for roughly three minutes, he referred to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as "an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy."

"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. "

Smith said that his office would seek a "speedy trial."

More details on co-conspirators
According to the indictment, the six co-conspirators consisted four attorneys, one Justice Department official, and a political consultant.
"Co-Conspirator 1,” is described as an attorney "who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies" that Trump's 2020 campaign attorneys would not pursue.

"Co-Conspirator 2," is described as an attorney who "devised" and tried to implement a strategy to leverage then-Vice President Mike Pence's largely ceremonial role in overseeing the the certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory on Jan. 6 to "obstruct the certification of the presidential election.

"Co-Conspirator 3," is described as an attorney whose election fraud claims Trump privately acknowledged to others sounded “crazy," but that Trump "embraced and publicly amplified" nonetheless.

"Co-Conspirator 4," is a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters, according to the indictment, and joined Trump in attempting to use the agency to "open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud."

"Co-Conspirator 5," is described as an attorney who helped devise and attempt to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors

"Co-Conspirator 6," is described as a political consultant who played a role in implementing a plan to submit false slates of presidential electors.

Prosecutors give new details about Trump's efforts on Jan. 6 to press lawmakers to delay the election certification even after hours of violence
While Trump is not charged in the indictment with inciting the Jan. 6 riot, the indictment alleges that he exploited the riot despite knowing there was no evidence to support his claims of election fraud.

The indictment presents key new details about efforts by Trump and co-conspirator 1 to reach members of Congress on the evening of Jan. 6 to carry out his plan to delay the certification. Prosecutors didn't identify the lawmakers by name but said:
Trump, through White House aides, attempted to reach two U.S. senators at 6 p.m.
From 6:59 p.m. until 7:18 p.m., co-conspirator 1 placed calls to five U.S. senators and one member of the House.

Co-conspirator 6 attempted to confirm phone numbers for six U.S. senators whom Trump had directed co-conspirator 1 to call and attempt to enlist in further delaying the certification.

In one call, co-conspirator 1 left a voicemail for a U.S. senator that said, "We need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you. And I know they’re reconvening at eight tonight, but the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow — ideally until the end of tomorrow."

In another message intended for another U.S. senator, co-conspirator 1 claimed that Pence's "actions had been surprising and asked the senator to “object to every state and kind of spread this out a little bit like a filibuster[.]"

Pence's chief of staff alerted Secret Service about the VP's safety after Trump threat
Prosecutors said in the indictment that on Jan. 5, 2021, Trump met alone with Vice President Mike Pence.

"When the Vice President refused to agree to the Defendant’s request that he obstruct the certification, the Defendant grew frustrated and told the Vice President that the Defendant would have to publicly criticize him," the indictment said.

"Upon learning of this, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff was concerned for the Vice President’s safety and alerted the head of the Vice President’s Secret Service detail."

Officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 react to indictment
Current and former officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot are reacting to today's indictment.

"937 days and counting... An indictment is only a mile marker along the highway to justice and accountability," Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn said in a tweet.

Former Capitol Police Officer Winston Pingeon tweeted: "I want Justice for what my fellow officers and I endured while defending democracy on January 6th. One step closer."

Pingeon also shared a photo of him clad in defense gear with the Capitol in the background.

Garland calls the probe 'the largest investigation' in DOJ's history
In brief remarks outside an event in Philadelphia tonight, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that career employees of the Justice Department "engaged in what has become the largest investigation in our history."

"In order to underline the department’s commitment to accountability and independence, Mr. Smith and his team of experienced principled career agents and prosecutors have followed the facts and the law wherever they lead," Garland, who appointed Jack Smith as special counsel in November, told reporters. "Any questions about this matter will have to be answered by the filings made."

Here are the 7 states where Trump and co-conspirators allegedly organized fraudulent slates of electors
The indictment refers to seven states that Trump and co-conspirators targeted to organize fraudulent slates of electors: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The slates were allegedly tasked with mimicking the procedures that legitimate electors were expected to follow under the Constitution and other federal and state laws.

“Some fraudulent electors were tricked into participating based on the understanding that their votes would be used only in the Defendant succeeded in outcome-determinative lawsuits within their state, which the Defendant never did,” the indictment states.

Trump and co-conspirators allegedly used the false electors in an effort to transmit false certificates to Pence or other government officials to be counted at the Jan. 6 certification proceeding.

Trump's former obsession with Twitter looms large in charges
The indictment contains at least 16 references to Trump's use of Twitter, now known as X, which later banned him for inciting violence.

Citing his tweets, retweets and quote tweets, the indictment paints a picture of Trump privately and repeatedly endorsing claims of election fraud and lawsuits that sought to overturn the results. Meanwhile, the allegations say, he often privately admitted they were false.

It also documents how he used Twitter to rally supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Twitter suspended and then banned his account after he tweeted a video to his supporters telling them that they were “very special” and should go home but not recanting his claims that the election was fraudulent.

Schumer and Jeffries: This indictment is the 'most consequential thus far'
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a joint statement calling today's indictment "the most serious and most consequential thus far."

"The third indictment of Mr. Trump illustrates in shocking detail that the violence of that day was the culmination of a months-long criminal plot led by the former president to defy democracy and overturn the will of the American people," they said.

Rudy Giuliani appears to be co-conspirator 1
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's former personal attorney, appears to be co-conspirator 1 based on previous testimony and other records.

For example, the indictment alleges that in December 2021, then-Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers asked co-conspirator 1 to furnish evidence of "outcome-determinative" election fraud, for which the individual responded with "words to the effect of, 'We don’t have the evidence, but we have lots of theories.'"

Bowers attributed a similar quote to Giuliani on the record in the January 6 House Select Committee’s fourth public hearing.

In a statement in response to the apparent similarities, Giuliani adviser Ted Goodman, claimed "someone is leaking intentionally misleading information to the press as part of a sloppy effort at gathering additional information."

"The mayor has not been contacted by the Special Counsel’s office, and he has no reason to believe that he will," Goodman said.

In a second, follow-up statement, Goodman said: “Every fact Mayor Rudy Giuliani possesses about this case establishes the good faith basis President Donald Trump had for the actions he took during the two-month period charged in the indictment."

The indictment, he said, "eviscerates the First Amendment and criminalizes the ruling regime’s number one political opponent for daring to ask questions about the 2020 election results, and "underscores the tragic reality of our two-tiered justice system — one for the regime in power and the other for anyone who dares to oppose the ruling regime."

Judge assigned to Trump case ruled against him in 2021
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who has been assigned the Trump indictment case, previously ruled that the Trump administration had to turn over documents related to Jan. 6 in a November 2021 case.

The House Jan. 6 committee had subpoenaed the Trump administration for documents related to the attack on the Capitol. Trump tried to assert executive privilege, but Chutkan ruled against him twice.

McCarthy, Republicans react with attacks on Hunter Biden
Reacting to the Trump indictment, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and members of his GOP leadership team, perhaps predictably, took aim at President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

McCarthy accused the Justice Department of aggressively prosecuting President Biden’s expected chief political rival, Trump, while going easy on prosecuting Biden's son.

"Biden’s DOJ tried to secretly give Hunter broad immunity and admitted the sweetheart deal was unprecedented And just yesterday a new poll showed President Trump is without a doubt Biden’s leading political opponent,” McCarthy tweeted. “Everyone in America could see what was going to come next: DOJ’s attempt to distract from the news and attack the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, President Trump."

“House Republicans will continue to uncover the truth about Biden Inc. and the two-tiered system of justice,” he added.

Another top Trump ally on the Hill, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., echoed McCarthy in accusing the DOJ of trying to distract from testimony just a day earlier from one of Hunter Biden’s business associates, Devon Archer.

“Less than 24 hours ago, Congress heard testimony from Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner that Joe Biden joined Hunter’s business calls over 20 times. This directly contradicts Biden’s lie that he never discussed business with his son,” Stefanik said, calling today's indictment against Trump a "sham" to "distract" from "one of the greatest political corruption scandals in history.”

Co-conspirator No. 4 appears to be Jeffrey Clark

The person identified in the indictment as co-conspirator No. 4 appears to be Jeffrey Clark, who served as a U.S. assistant attorney general for the civil division between Sept. 5, 2020, and Jan. 14, 2021.

The indictment referred to the person as a Justice Department official who met with Trump at the White House on December 22, 2020.

"Co-Conspirator 4 had not informed his leadership at the Justice Department of the meeting, which was a violation of the Justice Department’s written policy restricting contacts with the White House to guard against improper political influence," prosecutors wrote.

The indictment continued, "On December 26, Co-Conspirator 4 spoke on the phone with the Acting Attorney General and lied about the circumstances of his meeting with the Defendant at the White House, falsely claiming that the meeting had been unplanned. The Acting Attorney General directed Co- Conspirator 4 not to have unauthorized contacts with the White House again, and Co-Conspirator 4 said he would not."

The Jan. 6 committee’s final report cited Clark’s Dec. 22 meeting with Trump and noted that it was strictly against DOJ policy as well. The committee stated that Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen spoke to Clark by phone on Dec. 26.

"[Clark’s] meeting with President Trump and Representative [Scott] Perry on December 22nd was a clear violation of Department policy, which limits interactions between the White House and the Department’s staff," the committee's report said.

Sidney Powell appears to be co-conspirator No. 3
Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor who served on Trump's legal team, appears to be co-conspirator 3 in the Trump indictment.

For example, the indictment notes that co-conspirator 3 sued the governor of Georgia on Nov. 25, 2020, "alleging 'massive election fraud' accomplished through the voting machine company’s election software and hardware." That suit, the indictment says, was filed even though Trump "had discussed Co- Conspirator 3’s far-fetched public claims regarding the voting machine company in private with advisors, the Defendant had conceded that they were unsupported and that Co-Conspirator 3 sounded 'crazy.'"

Powell’s lawsuit and its subsequent dismissal were publicly reported on at the time, and Trump’s statement that Powell sounded “crazy” was part of the January 6 committee’s final report, which included this language: “During the call, Powell repeated the same claims of foreign interference in the election she had made at the press conference. While she was speaking, the President muted his speakerphone and laughed at Powell, telling the others in the room, 'This does sound crazy, doesn’t it?'"

Deputy White House counsel told Trump ‘there is no world ... in which you do not leave the White House’
Weeks before the Jan. 6 riot, the deputy White House counsel told Trump flatly he would be leaving the White House on Jan. 20, according to today's indictment.

“There is no world, there is no option in which you do not leave the White House [o]n January 20th,” the deputy counsel told Trump in December, the indictment said.

Trump lawyer: 'We will re-litigate every single issue in the 2020 election'
In an appearance on Fox News shortly after the indictment was released, Trump lawyer John Lauro discussed the case, saying, "We now have the ability in this case to issue our own subpoenas, and we will re-litigate every single issue in the 2020 election."

Lauro and fellow Trump attorney Todd Blanche met in Washington with prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s office Thursday morning, three sources with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC News at the time.

Kenneth Chesebro appears to be co-conspirator No. 5
Trump-allied lawyer Kenneth Chesebro appears to be unnamed co-conspirator No. 5 in the Trump indictment.

The document describes this person as "an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”

The indictment also discusses “The December 9 Memorandum ('Fraudulent Elector Instructions') in which co-conspirator No. 5 spelled out instructions on how 'fraudulent electors could mimic legitimate electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.'"

NBC News has reached out to Chesebro for comment.

The House Jan. 6 committee report named Chesebro as the figure who created “step by step” instructions for fake electors to follow, including in a Dec. 9 memo authored by Chesebro.

The indictment states that co-conspirator No. 5 called an Arizona attorney on Dec. 8, writing that the attorney subsequently wrote an email outlining the conversation he had with the caller about the fake electors’ strategy. That email is reproduced in the indictment.

The New York Times reported on that same email on July 26, 2022, naming Chesebro as the person who floated the theory.

Anti-Defamation League calls Trump campaign's Nazi comparison 'offensive' and 'shameful'
The head of the Anti-Defamation League today called references to Nazi Germany by Trump's campaign inaccurate, offensive and shameful.

“Comparing this indictment to Nazi Germany in the 1930s is factually incorrect, completely inappropriate and flat out offensive,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “As we have said time and again, such comparisons have no place in politics and are shameful.”

Trump’s campaign reacted to the indictment by saying, “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.”

:lol:

Told ya there's a 0% chance the US DOJ just let's someone try to overthrow the US gov't and get off scot-free. The orange guy's next wife is gonna be named Bubba.

:ketchup chips:

Whenever anyone says the secret word, scream real loud!

Here's to Jack Smith nailing Trump's carcass to the barn!