A federal court grand jury has indicted ex-President Donald Trump as part of an investigation into the January 6, 2021 riots in Washington, DC, which followed allegations of attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Jurors in Washington, DC, found the defendants guilty on all counts, including conspiracy to commit fraud, witness tampering, obstruction of a judicial proceeding, and conspiracy against citizens’ rights.
The investigation by special counsel Jack Smith found evidence that the former president attempted to overturn his loss to incumbent Joe Biden, leading to the charges.
According to the indictment, Trump and six other unnamed people planned to sabotage the results of the 2020 election. Prosecutors argued that Trump knew his claims about voter fraud were false but kept making them to “create a national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of elections,” as reported by Reuters.
The ex-president has a court appearance scheduled for Thursday in federal court.
At a press conference broadcast around the world, Smith said that his office will seek a “speedy trial” of Trump for what he called an “unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy… fueled by the defendant’s lies.”
The Republican presidential candidate’s press office has characterized the allegations as an attempt by the Biden Administration to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.
The former president of the United States is facing his third criminal case in as many months.
After leaving office, Trump is accused of keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and refusing to turn them over to the FBI or the Department of Justice for over a year. This has resulted in 37 charges against the president. The ex-president appeared in court in Miami last month and entered a not-guilty plea. He said the allegations against him are politically motivated, and that the Biden administration is trying to eliminate his main opponent before the election.
Also in April, Trump was charged with “falsifying New York business records to conceal harmful information and illegal activities from American voters before and after the 2016 election.” Even the businessman denied any wrongdoing.
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters broke through police lines and surrounded the US Congress in Washington, D.C., causing many lawmakers to flee or seek shelter. During the riots, five people were killed and about 140 police officers were hurt.
Trump called for a march on the Legislative headquarters to “prevent theft” of the elections in an address to his supporters not long before the assault on the Capitol.
Over a thousand people have been arrested and charged in connection with the crimes.
