Donald Trump charged over effort to overturn 2020 election

Washington: Donald Trump has been charged for the third time in four months, this time for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election which led to the deadly attack on the US Capitol building.

In another history-making moment, the 77-year-old Republican – who is the overwhelming frontrunner to win his party’s 2024 presidential nomination – faces a fresh spate of criminal charges, putting him on a collision course with the justice system as he ratchets up his campaign to return to the White House.

Former US president Donald Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith.Credit: AP, Reuters

The indictment is the culmination of a months-long probe by Special Counsel Jack Smith – the same federal prosecutor who has charged Trump for his mishandling of classified documents.

Days after hitting Trump with additional charges in that case, Smith has now charged Trump with four counts relating to his attempt to remain in power despite losing office in November 2020.

The 45-page indictment handed down on Wednesday (AEST) included conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; conspiracy against rights (namely, the rights of voters).

“Each of these conspiracies – which built on the widespread mistrust the defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilising 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,” the document said.

Trump’s efforts to remain in office involved stoking lies about voter fraud, embracing a scheme designed to use fake electors to flip electoral college votes in key states, mounting a pressure campaign on various officials to overturn the results, and fuelling the protest that led to the Capitol riots.

The insurgency left several people dead, about 150 police officers injured, and a nation shocked and divided. The indictment also said Trump had six co-conspirators – four lawyers, a Justice Department official and a political consultant – but it did not name them. Based on the descriptions of their roles, they are believed to include his former lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and John Eastman – all of whom helped pushed the false claim that the election was stolen.

Trump has been summoned to appear in court on August 3, and in brief remarks after the indictment, Smith said his office would seek a speedy trial.

“The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” he added. “The men and women who defended the US Capitol on January 6 are heroes.”

Trump, however, continues to maintain his innocence and has also raised millions of dollars in donations by leveraging his legal troubles to claim he is the victim of a witch-hunt designed to stop him returning to the White House.

In a statement issued after the indictment was unsealed in court, a Trump spokesperson likened the matter to “Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” calling them “un-American”.

“This is nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponised Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by substantial margins,” the statement said.

A Department of Homeland Security police officer walks with his dog outside federal court in Washington, where Trump has been charged.Credit: AP

But despite Trump’s defiance, the latest case could prove damaging for the former US president at a time when many Republicans – including some of his primary race rivals – are attempting to move on from the “drama” of the past.

“It’s going to keep on going,” Trump’s former ambassador Nikki Haley said in a recent interview on Fox News.

“I mean the rest of this primary election is going to be in reference to Trump. It’s going to be about lawsuits, it’s going to be about legal fees, it’s going to be about judges, and it’s just going to continue to be a further and further distraction.”

Former Texas congressman Will Hurd, who is also vying for the nomination and is one of the few Republicans who have taken on Trump directly, was even more aggressive at a Lincoln Dinner in Iowa last week.

Rioters loyal to Donald Trump rally at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.Credit: AP

“Donald Trump is not running for president to make America great again. Donald Trump is not running for president to represent the people that voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison,” he said, as the crowd booed.

The latest charges add to a growing number of court cases Trump will have to manage as he campaigns for the Republican primaries, which begin in Iowa on January 15, followed by the November 2024 presidential election if he wins the GOP nomination to run against Joe Biden.

Last month, the federal judge presiding over Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents set May 20 as the trial date for that case. Most of those charges against him relate to the “wilful retention” of documents in violation of the Espionage Act, a national security law that comes with a maximum 10-year jail term.

However, that trial is likely to be delayed after Smith last week hit Trump with additional charges, claiming that he asked the property manager of Mar-a-Lago, Carlos De Oliviera, to have surveillance camera footage deleted to stop investigators from knowing whether boxes of documents had been moved to avoid complying with a federal subpoena.

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice shows documents seized during the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.Credit: AP

Trump will also be trialled in Manhattan over alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with him in 2016.

He is also facing a civil state trial over fraud accusations in October, brought on by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Another trial to determine whether he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll (who Trump was recently found to have sexually abused) is set to open on January 15 – the same day as the Iowa caucuses begin.

A civil trial also looms on January 29, in which Trump, his company and three of his children have been accused of dodgy business ventures.

And a potential fourth indictment looms from the battleground state of Georgia, over Trump’s alleged attempts to interfere with 2020 election votes in that state.

“The work is accomplished,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said over the weekend. “We’ve been working for two and half years. We’re ready to go.”

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