A grand jury commissioned by the Biden Justice Department has indicted Former President Donald Trump, the leading presidential candidate in the 2024 campaign, on charges of conspiracy and obstruction involving his actions to challenge the results of the 2020 elections.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s office confirmed the indictments. The 45th president is charged with 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.
Trump Attorney John Lauro said the indictment is evidence political speech has been criminalized.
“Joe Biden’s running against Donald Trump and losing currently. And now we have (the) Justice Department indicting President Trump for actions that he took as the executive, as the chief executive of the United States with respect to public policy matters,” Lauro said on Fox Special Report. “So now we have the criminalization and the weaponization of public policy and political speech by one political party over another.”
Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president for 4 years, strongly criticized his former boss, saying in a statement Tuesday, “Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” and added,. “I will have more to say about the government’s case after reviewing the indictment.”
President Trump himself, who reportedly must make a court appearance on Thursday, wrote on social media, “Why did they wait two and a half years to bring these fake charges, right in the middle of President Trump’s winning campaign for 2024? Why was it announced the day after the big Crooked Joe Biden scandal broke out from the Halls of Congress? The answer is, election interference!”
The latest charges stem from the former president’s challenges to the 2020 election results between early November 2020, and January 6, 2021, when he urged thousands of supporters to peacefully protest on the Washington Mall. Prosecutors say Trump is liable for the violence that ensued after the gathering.
The indictment stated Trump engendered “widespread mistrust” in his attempt to “overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election.”
Six unnamed “co-conspirators” are included in the indictment, said to include several attorneys and an official in the Justice Department.
Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley said on Fox News’s The Five that he didn’t see anything particularly new in the indictments and cautioned that the prosecutor runs the risk of defending the criminalization of differences of opinion among the president’s attorneys.
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