Trump indictment recap: Jack Smith details how Trump allegedly tried to steal 2020 election

WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump on Tuesday for conspiring to steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden, including actions that led to the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, which the prosecutor described as "an unprecedented assault" on democracy.

"It was fueled by lies − lies by the defendant," special counsel Jack Smith said as the indictment was unsealed.

Trump, now facing his third criminal case, has denied wrongdoing and denounced the indictment as an attempt to derail his 2024 presidential candidacy.

Trump indicted in Jan. 6 probe: What we know so far

• The indictment details multiple strategies Trump and his allies are accused of using in an attempt to overturn his election loss.
• One of the methods Trump allegedly used in a bid to steal the election involved a “fake elector” scheme to overturn Biden’s victories in key battleground states.
• Trump also deliberately deceived his supporters, the indictment says, and directed them to march to the Capitol in an effort to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers to reject the certification of electors. 
• Six co-conspirators are referenced in the indictment but are unnamed. Among those co-conspirators is Jeffrey Clark, a high-ranking Justice Department official in the Trump administration.

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Jan. 6 committee members celebrate grand jury indictment

Many of the details in this indictment are familiar: They were unearthed by the special congressional committee that investigated the assault on the Capitol.

"Today’s charges are consistent with those the Select Committee referred to the Special Counsel last year," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., on the social media site X, formerly Twitter. "Successful prosecutions will not only bring accountability but also help prevent something like January 6th from ever happening again."

Other committee members also took victory laps.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told CBS News the grand jury indictment is "quite parallel" to the Jan. 6 special committee. "I feel very pleased that this is such a vindication of the rule of law in America and that this grand jury saw what the January 6 committee saw."

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans who served on the committee, said on the X site that "we uncovered proof that Donald Trump not only knew what was happening at the Capitol, but encouraged it. He is a cancer on our democracy. Today is the beginning of Justice."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who also served on the Jan. 6 committee and is a vocal opponent of Trump, said Tuesday’s charges related to the Jan. 6 attack are the most serious to date.  

“This will put our democracy to a new test: Can the rule of law be enforced against a former president and current candidate? For the sake of our democracy, that answer must be yes,” he posted on X. 

− David Jackson and Rachel Looker

Where was Joe Biden? Watching 'Oppenheimer'

Biden did not comment on Trump's latest indictment.

He went to the movies instead.

The president and first lady Jill Biden, who are in Delaware, motorcaded to a local theater showing "Oppenheimer," the celebrated film about the physicist who is described as "the father of the atomic bomb."

− David Jackson

Four counts against Trump

The indictment handed down in a federal court in Washington, D.C., listed four counts against Trump: 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.

The indictment was unsealed less than an hour after Trump sought to preempt prosecutors by announcing to supporters that he expected to be charged.

"Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago?" Trump posted on his Truth Social account. "Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!"

− David Jackson

What’s next for Donald Trump?

The former president is due in court Thursday in Washington in what will mark his first appearance in the case accusing him of attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump will appear before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse. Trump’s appearance in the courthouse, less than 2 miles from the White House, will serve as a symbolic moment amid a slew of legal challenges facing the former president.

The former president has used his most recent indictment to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign. A super PAC supporting Trump, the current 2024 Republican front-runner, has spent tens of millions of campaign donations to finance Trump’s legal fees.

It was unclear what time Trump was expected to appear in court Thursday.

– Miles J. Herszenhorn

Why was Trump investigated?

Smith has been investigating Trump’s role in his campaign recruiting fake electors to flip the results of states Biden won, his strategy to have Pence recognize the alternate electors, and for encouraging supporters to "fight like hell" during a speech before the Capitol attack. No other former president has ever been charged with a crime.

Trump announced July 18 that he was a target of the investigation for alleged conspiracy to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights and witness tampering. He has denied wrongdoing and argued the prosecution is politically motivated while continuing to campaign for president in 2024.

Trump already faces two other criminal cases. He was charged federally with mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. And he was charged in New York with falsifying business records to pay hush money before the 2016 election to a woman who claimed to have had sex with him.

− Bart Jansen

What did special counsel Jack Smith say?

Smith, 54, said the indictment laid out the charges against Trump and encouraged the American people to “read it in full."

While his investigation included previous efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Smith used a public statement to zero in on the final act: the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.

“The attack on our nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy," Smith said in his brief statement to reporters.

"It was was fueled by lies − lies by the defendant," he said.

Those lies, he said, were "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 mentioned Trump by name at the top of his brief statement, saying the grand jury charged him with "conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding."

Smith also praised the law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, saying they are "heroes" who put their lives on the line.

He also praised the FBI, which has been under rhetorical attack by Trump and other Republicans.

The special counsel also noted that investigations of others involved in the assault are ongoing.

− David Jackson

Indictment: Trump used several methods to overturn the election

The indictment lists a number of strategies that Trump and associates are accused of deploying to try to overturn the election.

They included pressuring officials to invalidate Biden wins in certain states, appointing "fake electors" to replace Biden slates, and demanding that Pence spike some Biden electoral votes when Congress met to ratify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6.

The indictment also said that Trump encouraged a mob to "go to the Capitol as a means to obstruct the certification and pressure the Vice President to fraudulently obstruct the certification" of Biden's victory.

The indictment listed, but did not name, six co-conspirators; they include attorneys, a Justice Department official and a political consultant.

− David Jackson

Pence called Trump to wish him a Merry Christmas. Trump talked overturning the election.

When then-Vice President Mike Pence called his boss on Dec. 25, 2020, to wish him a Merry Christmas, Trump "quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the Vice President reject electoral votes that day," according to the indictment.

"The Vice President pushed back, telling the Defendant, as the Vice President already had in previous conversations, 'You know I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome.'"

On Tuesday, Pence said the latest indictment sends yet another strong message.

“Today's indictment serves as an important reminder: Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States," Pence said.

− Ken Tran

Trump can still run in 2024 despite new indictment

Trump can still run for president in 2024 election.

Barbara McQuade, a criminal law expert at the University of Michigan, told USA TODAY that even if Trump were charged, convicted and sentenced to prison, he would still be able to run for president.

The three exclusive requirements to run for president are to be a natural-born citizen, to be at least 35 years old and to have been a resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years, according to the U.S. Constitution.

Trump told reporters in March that he “won’t even think about leaving” the 2024 race despite his legal troubles.

− Sudiksha Kochi

Indictment details Trump’s pressure campaign in Georgia amid separate probe in the state

The indictment says Trump induced Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to alter the state’s count of the popular vote and questioned the validity of Biden’s electors’ votes. 

“The Defendant said that he needed to "find” 11,780 votes, and insinuated that the Georgia Secretary of State and his Counsel could be subject to criminal prosecution if they failed to find election fraud as he demanded,” the indictment says.

Georgia's Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis is investigating Trump's alleged role in trying to overturn the state's 2020 election results in a separate investigation. She has said in an interview that a decision to charge Trump could come by Sept. 1.

− Sudiksha Kochi

What is a grand jury?

A grand jury is a group of people who are selected to hear evidence presented by the government to determine whether to charge someone with a crime. Unlike a trial jury, which decides whether to find someone guilty of a crime, a grand jury is tasked only with deciding whether the government has enough evidence to indict someone.

A grand jury usually conducts its proceedings in private and, after hearing evidence, will vote to decide whether to indict someone on criminal charges.

To decide whether to charge someone with a crime, a federal grand jury requires only a simple majority to vote in favor of indicting. A trial jury, however, needs unanimity to reach a guilty verdict. 

This marks the third time a grand jury has voted to indict Trump.

− Miles J. Herszenhorn

What is an indictment?

An indictment is a formal document that contains allegations that someone committed a crime. It includes the charges laid out against a person and is filed before a case can move forward in court, David Weinstein, a former federal and state prosecutor, told USA TODAY. 

Weinstein said an indictment means a grand jury decided there’s “more likely than not” enough evidence – based on testimony – to move forward with charging a person. At least 12 jurors must agree that a defendant allegedly committed a crime to issue an indictment. 

After a person is indicted, they must go to trial, where a jury will reach an unanimous decision on whether to pursue conviction.

− Sudiksha Kochi

What does the indictment say?

The indictment detailed Trump's effort to use the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election. 

"In late December 2020, the Defendant attempted to use the Justice Department to make knowingly false claims of election fraud to officials in the targeted states through a formal letter under the Acting Attorney General's signature, thus giving the Defendant's lies the backing of the federal government and attempting to improperly influence the targeted states to replace legitimate Biden electors with the Defendant's," the indictment stated. 

The indictment also says Trump threatened to change leadership in the Justice Department after senior department officials refused to support the former president's false claims about the 2020 election. The indictment references a 2020 New Year's Eve meeting between Trump, acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue. 

"On December 31, the Defendant summoned to the Oval Office the Acting Attorney General, Acting Deputy Attorney General, and other advisors," the indictment stated. "In the meeting, the Defendant again raised claims about election fraud that Justice Department officials already had told him were not true--and that the senior Justice Department officials reiterated were false and suggested he might change the leadership in the Justice Department."

− Miles J. Herszenhorn

Indictment lists at least six Trump co-conspirators, including a Justice Department official and four lawyers

The indictment handed up Tuesday lists six people as co-conspirators in Trump’s alleged schemes to illegally stay in power, including Jeffrey Clark, a high-ranking Justice Department official in the Trump administration.

The indictment does not name any of the alleged co-conspirators. But it says “co-conspirator  4” is “a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.”

The other co-conspirators allegedly helped Trump “in his criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power.” The indictment described one “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant's 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not,” while another attorney “devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President's ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidentialelection.

−Josh Meyer

Unsealed indictment alleges Trump deliberately directed rioters to Capitol to overturn 2020 election

The unsealed indictment accuses Trump of deliberately deceiving his supporters with his claims of election fraud and directing them to the Capitol to pressure Pence to overturn the election.

“The Defendant repeated false claims of election fraud, gave false hope that the Vice President might change the election outcome, and directed the crowd in front of him to go to the Capitol as a means to obstruct the certification and pressure the Vice President to fraudulently obstruct the certification,” the indictment reads.

The indictment also says Trump and an unnamed co-conspirator “attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol” by pressuring lawmakers to delay the certification of the electors.

− Ken Tran

DeSantis criticizes prosecutors, not Trump

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is Trump's closest competitor in the Republican presidential race, took a low-key approach to his third indictment and criticized the indictment rather than his front-running campaign rival.

"While I’ve seen reports, I have not read the indictment,' DeSantis said in a social media post. "I do, though, believe we need to enact reforms so that Americans have the right to remove cases from Washington, DC to their home districts."

DeSantis also said that if he is elected president, "I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI Director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans."

The Florida governor was also reluctant to criticize Trump after his first two indictment − both which seemed to fuel Trump's rise among GOP voters. He has a huge lead in Republican polls. 

− David Jackson

'Don't care, still voting Trump'

Reaction to the new indictment on pro-Trump message boards and from far-right pundits on the social media and messaging app Telegram was swift, furious, and resigned. 

Several posts of the pro-Trump forum Patriots.win Tuesday evening echoed a similar theme:

“Don't care, still voting Trump,” read the most-upvoted post.

“I'll either write in Trump or vote Libertarian. I'm done with the rest of the party. They don't represent me. do they represent you?” read a reply.

Other posts expressed confusion about whether the former president will be allowed to run in 2024, with some people claiming Trump will be removed from the ballot in several states.

Far-right provocateur Ali Alexander, largely considered the architect of the “Stop the Steal” movement that emerged after Trump lost the election, had a message for his more than 15,000 Telegram subscribers:

“They're gonna indict Trump in Fulton County Georgia soon too. This is totalitarian crap. There is no Law & Order! Patriots, act accordingly! Opsec!”

− Will Carless