August 2, 2023 Latest on Trump's indictment in 2020 election probe

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Donald Trump is “entitled to the presumption of innocence” after the former president was indicted in the special counsel’s 2020 election interference probe.

Pence added, however, that “anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”

“I really do believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States. And anyone who asks someone else to put themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again. I've been very forthright about this issue,” the 2024 Republican presidential candidate told reporters after an economic speech at the Indiana State Fair on Wednesday.

Pence said in “regard to the substance of the indictment, I've been very clear I had hoped it wouldn't come to this." The former vice president said he “had hoped that this issue and the judgment of the president's actions would be left to the American people.”

He added that he cannot assess whether "the government has the evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what they assert in the indictment." Pence said that Trump is "entitled to a presumption of innocence but for my part, I want people to know that I have no right to overturn the election.”

Recalling January 6, 2021, Pence said:

Pence defended his actions on January 6, 2021, and said that while he made his case to Trump that he had no right to overturn the 2020 election results, the former president “ultimately continued to demand that I choose him over the Constitution."

Pence went on to say that the country and Constitution are more important "than any one man's career — and that's true of me, and that's true of the president, former president of the United States.”

He said that he would “stand by what happened that day, the stand that we took and trust ourselves to the judgment of Republicans voters and ultimately, the American people.”

Pence said that he “has nothing to hide” when he was asked whether he would testify in any criminal trial related to this case but added that he doesn’t want to “prejudge” how the case may unfold.

And asked if he learned anything new from the indictment, Pence said, “I didn't know anything about the efforts to secure fake electors in states around the country.”

“I learned about that after the fact. But again, I wish it didn't come to this. It'll be up to the government now to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that this actually represented criminal activity,” he added.

In April, Pence testified before the grand jury hearing evidence in the 2020 election probe – the first time in modern history that a vice president has been compelled to testify about the president he served beside.

Trump posted about Pence on Truth Social Wednesday, saying he felt "badly" for his former vice president.

"I feel badly for Mike Pence, who is attracting no crowds, enthusiasm, or loyalty from people who, as a member of the Trump Administration, should be loving him," Trump wrote, while also slamming Pence's actions on January 6 and calling the indictment "fake."

 

Law enforcement officials involved in the preparation for Donald Trump’s court appearance in Washington, DC, tell CNN they are monitoring for potential threats, protests and online chatter – as well as coordinating with one another on security plans for the former president's hearing. 

DC’s Metropolitan Police Department will be leading security in the district while US Secret Service oversees the protection of the former president and the US Marshals Service runs security inside the courthouse.  

A court appearance in DC would mark a notable moment for the former president. The US Capitol, which rioters stormed and overwhelmed in the wake of Trump’s alleged plot to overturn the 2020 election, is situated a few blocks from the federal courthouse where Trump will appear and where hundreds of January 6 defendants have been convicted.

Trump's summons, issued by the court Tuesday along with the approval of his indictment, sets his initial appearance at 4 p.m. ET Thursday in the DC District Court before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya. 

The Capitol Police Protective Services Bureau is monitoring for potential threats, especially those against members of Congress, as well as any online discussions of organizing protests near the Capitol in the lead-up to Trump’s court hearing.   

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said they have been working with law enforcement partners for the past few weeks to prepare in case Trump was indicted. 

According to law enforcement sources, agencies will establish a Joint Information Center for federal and local law enforcement to coordinate security in the district on Thursday. 

Officers for the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service have been patrolling the area outside the courthouse this week — along with bomb-sniffing dogs — and have established a security perimeter around the building. 

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday commended the House select committee on the January 6, 2021, attack, which recommended in its final report charges similar to the indictment unveiled Tuesday against former President Donald Trump as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election. 

"I just want to commend the January 6 committee, the House committee, bipartisan committee, (Committee Chairs) Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, and all the members of the committee and the staff for the work they did," she told CNN's Jake Tapper.

The House committee outlined its case against Trump and others allegedly involved in efforts to overturn the election in a series of hearings last year – and in its 800-page report.

"They laid a foundation of facts, about facts and the law, and made a criminal referral to the Justice Department," Pelosi added.

Three of the four counts included in the special counsel’s indictment mirror charges that were recommended by the committee in its final report released at the end of last year.

"It wasn't our role to know what the justice department would do, if anything. So when it became clear that there would be criminal charges made, it's interesting to see how similar they are to some of the charges recommended by the January 6th committee," Pelosi said.

Read more about the parallels between Smith's indictment against Trump and findings from the January 6 committee here.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal indictment appeared to be more than two and half years in the making, but the American public heard many of the key details of the case outlined in a series of hearings last year – as a well as an 800-page report – run by the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6 riot.

There are stark similarities between Smith’s narrative of how former President Donald Trump – aided by his co-conspirators – allegedly orchestrated a plot to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, and the evidence underpinning a nearly identical conclusion presented by the House January 6 committee months ago.

As striking as it is, the four-count indictment handed up by the grand jury against Trump on Tuesday hews closely to the roadmap outline by the January 6 committee in its final report, which was released at the end of last year.

Three of the four counts included in the special counsel’s indictment mirror charges that were recommended by the House committee.

The committee also specifically recommended prosecution of Trump himself and one of the former president’s now unindicted co-conspirators – attorney John Eastman – who still could face legal peril as the special counsel probe continues.

Also name-checked in the referral section of the congressional panel’s final report are also included in Smith’s indictment as unindicted co-conspirators: Rudy Giuliani, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark and attorney Kenneth Chesebro.

“The fake elector plan emerged from a series of legal memoranda written by an outside legal advisor to the Trump Campaign: Kenneth Chesebro,” the committee’s final report states.

“President Trump in the days immediately before January 6th, Chesebro – an attorney based in Boston and New York recruited to assist the Trump Campaign as a volunteer legal advisor – was central to the creation of the plan,” the report states. “Memos by Chesebro on November 18th, December 9th, and December 13th, as discussed below, laid the plan’s foundation.”

Read more about the panel's findings here.

Former President Donald Trump’s mounting legal jeopardy is raising a stark political question: can anything break the sustained electoral stalemate that has left the country divided almost exactly in half between the Republican and Democratic coalitions?

Trump was indicted for a third time on Tuesday and is facing a swarm of criminal accusations unprecedented for an active presidential candidate, much less a former president.

But during this ordeal, his lead in the 2024 GOP presidential primary has solidified.

And while polls have highlighted some clear warning signs for him as a general election nominee, mostly they point to another closely fought contest, with President Joe Biden usually holding a small overall lead and a tiny handful of precariously balanced swing states likely to decide the outcome.

A New York Times/Siena College poll released on Tuesday, however, found Trump and Biden tied in a hypothetical matchup at 43 percent.

Here's where things stand:

Several big dynamics are converging, including a slowdown in inflation and an acceleration of Trump’s legal troubles, that could provide Democrats a tailwind next year, particularly in the presidential race. But all of these forces face the immovable object of the entrenched demographic and geographic divisions that have produced one of the longest periods in American history in which neither party has been able to establish a durable or decisive advantage over the other.

The parties now represent coalitions with such divergent visions of America’s future, particularly whether it welcomes or resists racial and cultural change, that it’s unclear what could allow one side to break out from the close competition between them. And that includes the prospect of Republicans choosing a presidential nominee who could be shuttling between the campaign trail and the courtroom.

“The two political parties are farther apart on average than they have been in our lifetime,” said Lynn Vavreck, a UCLA political scientist and co-author of books on the 2016 and 2020 elections. “That makes it harder for people to think about crossing over to the other side.”

Stalemate in influence: Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections — something no party has done since the formation of the modern party system in 1828. That suggests the Democratic coalition, on a national basis, is somewhat larger than the GOP’s.

But the Democrats’ difficulty competing outside of large metropolitan areas, as well as the small state bias in the Senate and the Electoral College, has allowed the GOP to remain highly competitive in this era.

In almost every critical dimension, the political system is now defined by stasis and stand-off. In this century, for instance, majorities for either side in the House and Senate have consistently been much smaller than they were in the late 20th century.

Each party has now established a virtually impregnable sphere of influence across a large number of states in which they dominate elections up and down the ballot-from the presidential contest through Congress and state races.

Forty of the 50 states, or 80% of them, have voted the same way in each of the past four presidential elections; that’s a higher percentage of states than voted the same way even in the four consecutive elections won by Franklin Roosevelt from 1932 through 1944.

Read more about the deadlock between the parties despite Trump's indictments.

Special counsel Jack Smith unveiled his case alleging that former President Donald Trump broke several laws in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, with a grand jury indictment returned Tuesday that illustrated the depth and breadth of the federal criminal investigation.

Prosecutors said in the new charging documents that Trump “was determined to remain in power” after losing the 2020 election, and that he and six unindicted co-conspirators orchestrated a plot to overturn the results on and leading up to January 6, 2021.

Trump, who has derided Smith’s case as a politically motivated “fake indictment,” has been summoned to appear before a magistrate judge on Thursday. He is scheduled at the Washington, DC, federal courthouse at 4 p.m. ET.

Here are key takeaways from Tuesday's indictment:

Trump accused of knowingly spreading "prolific lies": Prosecutors detailed the “prolific lies” that Trump made in the wake of the 2020 election, including knowingly pushing false claims of voter fraud and voting machines switching votes, the indictment says, despite state and federal officials telling him the claims were wrong.

Trump “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won” the indictment states, adding that the “claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false.”

Allegedly organized fake electors: The indictment alleges that Trump and his co-conspirators effectively tricked individuals from seven targeted states into creating and submitting certificates asserting they were legitimate electors.

The goal was to create a “fake controversy” at the certification proceeding in those states on December 14, 2020, and “position the Vice President – presiding on January 6 as President of the Senate – to supplant legitimate electors” with Trump’s fake ones.

"Exploited" the January 6 attack: The indictment alleges that Trump and co-conspirators “exploited” the “violence” and “chaos” of the Capitol attack – continuing efforts to convince members of Congress to delay the certification of the election that day while rebuffing pleas that he direct the rioters to depart.

In a phone call the evening of the riot, Trump refused a request from his then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to withdraw his objections and allow for Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results, prosecutors said in the new indictment.

New details on Pence: Many of the revelations in Tuesday’s indictment appear to be the fruits of aggressive legal battles brought by prosecutors to secure testimony from close presidential aides – including new details about the communications Trump had with Pence in the bid to convince the vice president to disrupt Congress’ certification vote.

More to come: The normally tight-lipped Jack Smith made a rare public statement with the unsealing of the indictment, making clear that his team’s “investigation of individuals continues and emphasizing that the Justice Department was committed to “ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day.”

As the investigation chugs along, and the possibility looms that others will be charged as part of the probe, the criminal proceedings against Trump will unfold in federal court in DC, starting with an appearance he’ll make before a magistrate judge scheduled for Thursday.

Read more.

Conservative retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig said the argument Donald Trump’s attorneys are making that the former president has a First Amendment defense is not valid.

“The former president does not have a First Amendment defense of any sort to the specific charges that have now been lodged against him by the grand jury and Jack Smith,” Luttig told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a live interview Tuesday night.

Luttig said he believes the American public has a right to see Trump tried before the 2024 election. “I do believe that he will be tried before the election occurs,” Luttig told Cooper.

John Lauro, an attorney representing Trump, claimed Tuesday that the First Amendment protected Trump's speech.

“Our defense is going to be focusing on the fact that what we have now is an administration that has criminalized the free speech and advocacy of a prior administration during the time that there's a political election going on. That's unprecedented. We've never seen that in the United States–in the history of the United States.” Lauro argued to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in a live interview Tuesday.

Collins pointed out that the indictment spells out that Trump went beyond speech and pursued “unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes,” including fake electors.

Lauro said Trump was following the advice of his attorneys and that he is allowed to point out problems with the election. “He had every right, in fact, a responsibility as the United States president to raise those issues, and now his advocacy is being criminalized.” 

In a statement Tuesday, Luttig called the indictment of Trump “historic, tragic, and regrettable day for America."

“These are as grave of offenses against the United States as a president could commit, save possibly treason. The former president is neither a victim nor a martyr today, Luttig said. “America is Donald Trump’s victim and Donald Trump has martyred America for his own selfish personal and political ambitions. In a word, Donald Trump has put himself above his country — once again.”

"These events will forever scar and stain the United States. And they will forever scar and stain the United States in the eyes of the world," he continued.

Luttig, a former judge on the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, was a key witness at the January 6 committee hearings last year. He is also known for his conservative credentials and longstanding ties with the Supreme Court.

Ahead of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, Luttig advised Vice President Mike Pence’s legal team against claims from Trump allies such as attorney John Eastman, who had argued that Pence had the power to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Following Tuesday's indictment of former President Donald Trump, Washington, DC, metro police say they are working with federal law enforcement partners to plan for Trump's initial court appearance Thursday.  

"The Metropolitan Police Department is working closely with our federal law enforcement partners to monitor the situation and plan accordingly to ensure the safety of DC residents and visitors," the department said. "MPD encourages the public to remain vigilant, if you see something, say something. Please report immediate suspicious activity by calling 911."

The federal courthouse, where Trump is scheduled to appear for his initial hearing Thursday unless the hearing is held virtually, is situated several blocks from the US Capitol.

Multiple law enforcement agencies operate in the area, including National Park Police, Capitol police, DC police and the US Marshals Service.  

Law enforcement agencies would likely enter what are called memorandums of understanding prior to Trump’s appearance, a source familiar with the planning told CNN. These agreements allow for agencies to cross over into one another’s jurisdictions if an agency called for back-up.  

District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who's assigned to preside over former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Washington, DC, has repeatedly spoken out in very strong terms against the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and disrupt the transfer of power. 

In November 2021, Chutkan forcefully rejected Trump’s attempts to block the House select committee investigating January 6 from accessing more than 700 pages of records from his White House.

“Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President,” Chutkan wrote in her ruling.

Chutkan has been outspoken about the riot at several sentencing hearings – calling the violence an assault on American democracy and warning of future danger from political violence – and has repeatedly gone over what prosecutors have requested for convicted rioters’ prison sentences. 

At a December 2021 sentencing hearing, she looked ahead to the 2024 election, saying that “every day we are hearing about reports of anti-democratic factions, people plotting potential violence in 2024."

“It has to be made clear that trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, assaulting law enforcement, is going to be met with certain punishment,” she said. 

Chutkan has even tacitly referenced Trump during criminal sentencings, saying to one rioter that he “did not go to the United States Capitol out of any love for our country. … He went for one man.”

At a sentencing hearing on October 4, 2021, she acknowledged the nationwide attention on the Capitol riot cases. 

"The country is watching to see what the consequences are for something that has not ever happened in the country before,” she said, adding that the January 6 rioters “soiled and defaced the halls of the Capitol and showed their contempt for the rule of law."

At that same hearing, she also rejected comparisons between January 6 and the 2020 protests against racial inequality. 

"To compare the actions of people around the country protesting, mostly peacefully, for civil rights, to a violent mob seeking to overthrow the lawfully elected government is a false equivalency and downplays the very real danger that the crowd on January 6 posed to our democracy,” she said. 

Read more here.