Donald Trump faces criminal charges over 2020 election

Former US president Donald Trump has been indicted over his efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat.

Donald Trump has been hit with unprecedented criminal charges over what prosecutors allege was a wide-ranging conspiracy to subvert the will of American voters and cling to power after his 2020 election defeat.

The former president will be arrested for the third time in four months this week in Washington DC, intensifying the legal peril that has gripped his bid for a rematch with President Joe Biden next year.

Donald Trump faces criminal charges over his 2020 election defeat. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

And he will likely face further charges later this month, as prosecutors in Georgia finalise a separate indictment over his efforts to overturn the loss that ended his first term in power.

The stunning 45-page federal indictment, revealed on Wednesday, accused Mr Trump of a five-part scheme to stay in the White House based on his “knowingly false” claims of election fraud, which stoked the shocking January 6 invasion of the US Capitol.

Mr Trump, who is the dominant frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination and has vowed to keep campaigning even if he is sent to jail, said it was “yet another fake indictment” that was released “in order to interfere with the presidential election”.

Former US president Donald Trump has been hit with four serious charges. Picture: Getty Images

‘AN ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY’

But special counsel Jack Smith – who was appointed to investigate the former president last November – said the charges were consistent with the US government’s commitment to bring to justice “those criminally responsible for what happened” after the 2020 election.

“The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” he said.

Special Counsel Jack Smith says the attack on January 6 was “an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy”. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

“It was fuelled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”

US Attorney-General Merrick Garland, who tapped Mr Smith to independently handle the probe, said his team “followed the facts and the law wherever they lead”.

But Mr Trump’s campaign team fumed that the Biden administration’s “persecution” of the former president was “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s”.

Nearly 1100 Americans have already been charged over January 6, which the former president has recently described as a “love-fest” while promising to pardon those who have been locked up if he is re-elected.

Further charges are now expected against Mr Trump’s allies, with six co-conspirators identified in the indictment. They are not named but include his ex-lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Donald Trump has slammed the indictment on social media. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump was charged with three conspiracies – to defraud the United States, to obstruct an official proceeding, and to deprive people of their civil rights – as well as a fourth count of obstructing an official proceeding.

It outlined his alleged five-part effort to subvert the election, which included pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to fraudulently alter the results in Congress on January 6 and exploiting the violent invasion to try and delay the certification of Mr Biden’s victory.

The other elements of the conspiracy were pressuring state officials to ignore legitimate results, organising fake slates of electors to defraud the electoral college system, and using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations”.

The 45-page indictment explained how Mr Trump was repeatedly told by his allies that his claims of election fraud – including that tens of thousands of dead and ineligible Americans cast ballots, and that voting machines had changed votes to Mr Biden – were false.

The indictment suggests former US vice president Mike Pence gave detailed evidence to prosecutors. Picture: AFP

The indictment is the third filed since April against Mr Trump, who is the first president in history to face criminal charges.

In June, Mr Smith charged him over his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his obstruction of efforts to retrieve them after leaving the White House. That followed charges in New York over hush money to a porn star who claimed to have slept with Mr Trump.

While the special counsel said he would seek a speedy trial in the election case, the former president is already due in court in New York next March and then in Florida in May over the documents saga, amid primaries held to determine the Republican presidential nominee.

Mr Trump’s mounting legal jeopardy has bolstered his support in the party, with a New York Times poll released earlier this week finding 54 per cent of Republicans supported him to be their candidate at next year’s election.

That gave him an overwhelming lead of 37 percentage points on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – a margin from which no candidate has ever failed to claim a party’s nomination.

The poll also had Mr Trump tied with Mr Biden in a hypothetical rematch at 43 per cent.

The former US president said charges of 2020 election interference were an attempt at 2024 election interference. Picture: AFP

Originally published as Donald Trump faces criminal charges over 2020 election