August 1, 2023 Trump indicted in special counsel's 2020 election interference probe

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.

Here are the key takeaways:

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.

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Donald Trump has been indicted on federal charges related to 2020 election subversion, a stunning third time this year that the former president has faced criminal charges.

But could the former president, who remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, assume the Oval Office again if convicted of the alleged crimes? In short, yes.

University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard L. Hasen – one of the country’s leading experts on election law – said Trump still has a path to serving as president should he win reelection in 2024.

“The Constitution has very few requirements to serve as President, such as being at least 35 years of age. It does not bar anyone indicted, or convicted, or even serving jail time, from running as president and winning the presidency,” he said in an email to CNN.

Could a president serve from prison? That’s less clear.

“How someone would serve as president from prison is a happily untested question,” Hasen said.

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Former President Donald Trump's defense attorney John Lauro said he thinks a potential trial following Tuesday's indictment could last “nine months or a year.”

“The government has had three years to investigate this and now they want to rush this to trial in the middle of a political season. What does that tell you?” Lauro told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

Collins pointed out that it is Trump who has been complaining that the Department of Justice took so long to bring the indictment.

Lauro said he will need to see the evidence, but said his client deserves as much time as any other American.

“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 said.

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 his client was following advice from 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.” 

As for the call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump asked him to find votes, Lauro said, “no one was suggesting doing anything illegal.”

According to the indictment, Trump “lied” to Raffensperger “to induce him” to overturn the election. The indictment also highlights how Trump “disparaged” election workers and “raised allegations” of voter fraud that had already been debunked by Georgia officials. 

Lauro called the case a “game-changer” because of its effect on political speech.

“If we have a situation where they indict politicians for political speech and whether or not they're factually accurate, then this country will shut down politically, because it's a never-ending cycle of tit for tat and that's the risk of injecting politics into the criminal justice system,” he said.
“We've now entered a constitutional abyss as a result of this indictment,” Lauro added.

Trump is scheduled to appear at the Washington, DC, federal courthouse at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday. Special counsel Jack Smith said his office will seek a speedy trial.

Lawmakers loyal to Donald Trump have released statements defending the former president and attacking the Department of Justice after the news of the grand jury indictment broke Tuesday. 

Here's what they are saying:

Sen. Ted Budd called for President Joe Biden’s administration to be “held accountable” after Trump was indicted in the federal investigation into 2020 election interference and the January 6 insurrection. “Again and again, the Biden administration has weaponized the justice system to target his chief political opponent,” Budd posted to Twitter.

Sen. Eric Schmitt tweeted: “They know they can’t beat Trump given Biden’s disastrous failures and scandals so Biden’s DOJ has created a two tiered system of justice targeting his chief political opponent."

Sen. Marsha Blackburn posted: “The news of another indictment against President Trump is no shock ahead of 2024. The Left knows they can’t beat Trump amid Biden’s failures, so they’re trying to take him out with criminal charges. Biden’s abusing two tiers of justice to target his greatest political opponent."

Sen. J.D. Vance said in a statement, “Joe Biden is indicting Donald Trump (again) because he’s losing in this presidential race. He would rather throw Donald Trump in prison than face him at the ballot box ... Luckily, the American people get a say, and when they reelect Donald Trump, it will be time to clean house at the Department of Justice.”

Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted: “Biden DOJ unveils the latest effort to stop Trump from running against Biden - totally unprecedented in American history,” and Senator Rick Scott posted, “It seems like every time we learn more about Biden’s shady business dealings, his DOJ indicts President Trump.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of GOP leadership, called today a "dark day in America" and claimed Trump was within his rights to "correctly raise concerns" about the election in 2020, though there's been no evidence of any widespread fraud. "Today’s sham indictment of Donald Trump is yet another desperate attempt to distract attention away from the mounting evidence of Joe Biden’s direct involvement in his family's illegal influence peddling scheme - one of the greatest political corruption scandals in history."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to vote for Trump even if he is behind bars, a pretty remarkable statement that encapsulates the reality inside the GOP right now: that their nominee for president could be a convicted felon. 

Rep. Jim Jordan, House Judiciary Committee chair, tweeted: "When you drain The Swamp, the Swamp fights back. President Trump did nothing wrong!"

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers said that the indictment shows the strength of the justice system.

Sen. Dick Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “No person is above the law — and violations should be pursued no matter how powerful the person is."

Rep. Dan Goldman said that individuals "must be held accountable" for their role on Jan. 6, 2021. “ If Donald Trump believes that the legal or factual basis for these charges is unfounded, he can make that argument to a judge, who decides the law, or a jury, which decides the facts. But this case should be litigated in the court of law, not the court of public opinion and most definitely not the halls of Congress.”

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. 

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Following Tuesday's indictment of Donald Trump, Washington, DC, metro police said they are working with federal law enforcement partners to plan for the former president's initial court appearance on 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 backup.  

The indictment includes new details about the interactions between former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence ahead of January 6, 2021 – insights that special counsel Jack Smith likely gained after compelling Pence to testify following a protracted fight over executive privilege.  

Among those insights is a Christmas Day phone call Pence made to Trump to “wish him a Merry Christmas.” Trump, however, “quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the Vice President reject electoral votes that day,” the indictment says. 

Pence pushed back, telling Trump again, “You know I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome,” according to the indictment. 

The fight over executive privilege ended this March when a federal judge ruled that Pence and several other former Trump aides would have to testify to the grand jury about their conversations with Trump. Pence testified before the grand jury in April.  

Pence also appears to have provided “contemporaneous notes” to investigators, with the indictment saying that those materials showed how Trump “falsely told the Vice President that the "Justice Dept [was] finding major infractions."   

According to the indictment, Trump told Pence multiple times in the days before January 6 that he had the right to reject the 2020 election results.  

In one conversation on January 1, Pence told Trump he didn’t think there was a constitutional basis for Trump’s claims and that the vice president lacked the authority to change the results. 

“In response, the Defendant told the Vice President, ‘You're too honest,’” according to the indictment.

The indictment goes on to say that on January 5, 2021, Trump met alone with Pence, again pushing him to obstruct the certification. When Pence refused, Trump “grew frustrated and told the Vice President that the Defendant would have to publicly criticize him.”  

“Upon learning of this, the Vice President's Chief of Staff was concerned for the Vice President's safety and alerted the head of the Vice President's Secret Service detail,” Smith wrote in the indictment. 

CNN previously reported on Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence in the lead-up to January 6, 2021, including a six-point plan posited by Trump-aligned attorney John Eastman for the then-vice president to overturn the election results by throwing out electors for Joe Biden in seven states, among other things.

A senior adviser to former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign called claims of supposed voter fraud “conspiracy sh*t beamed down from the mothership,” according to the indictment.

The advisor was Jason Miller, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Miller’s attorney declined to comment.

According to the indictment, Miller spoke with Trump on a daily basis and “informed him on multiple occasions that various fraud claims were untrue.”

Miller, identified as “Senior Campaign Advisor” throughout the indictment, also expressed frustration that many of the claims from Trump’s legal team could not be substantiated. 

“As early as mid-November, for instance, the Senior Campaign Advisor had informed the Defendant that his claims of a large number of dead voters in Georgia were untrue,” the indictment says.

With respect to a “persistent false claim” regarding the State Farm Arena polling place in Georgia, “the Senior Campaign Advisor wrote in an email, ‘When our research and campaign legal team can't back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team, you can see why we're 0-32 on our cases. I'll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it's tough to own any of this when it's all just conspiracy sh*t beamed down from the mothership.’”

Former President Donald Trump is facing criminal charges over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and stay in office.

The indictment, which was handed down and unsealed Tuesday, describes the plot to overturn the 2020 election which culminated in the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Even before that, Trump engaged in a pressure campaign on state election workers, lawmakers and others, the indictment said.

You can read the entire document here.

As part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, Trump was charged with:

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States
• Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
• Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
• Conspiracy against rights

Here’s what else we learned today:

• Co-conspirators: Six co-conspirators are included in the indictment. In the documents, they are not named because they have not been charged with any crimes, but based on quotes in the indictment and other context, CNN can identify five of the six. Those include former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Sidney Powell as well as former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
• January 6 insurrection: Trump and co-conspirators “exploited” the January 6 attack by continuing efforts to convince members of Congress to delay the certification of the election that day, the indictment alleges. Smith, in public remarks Tuesday, called the insurrection an “unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy" that was “fueled by lies” told by the former president.
• Calls during the insurrection: In a phone call the evening of the riot, Trump refused a request from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to withdraw his objections and allow for Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results, the indictment said. It also describes phone calls that Co-Conspirator 1 — who appears, based on the description, to be Giuliani — made to members of Congress that evening asking senators to "object to every state."
• Knowingly spreading lies: According to the indictment, prosecutors said that Trump knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and voting machines allegedly switching votes — despite state and federal officials telling the former president the claims were wrong. The indictment said Trump continued to repeat these claims for months despite being told and knowing they were false.
• Fake electors: Trump and his co-conspirators effectively tricked individuals from seven targeted states into creating and submitting certificates asserting they were legitimate electors, the indictment said. The goal was to create a “fake controversy” at the certification proceeding on December 14, 2020, and position the vice president "to supplant legitimate electors” with Trump’s fake ones. 
• Pressure on elected officials: Trump “lied” to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “to induce him” to overturn the election, prosecutors said. The indictment also highlights how Trump “disparaged” election workers and “raised allegations” of voter fraud that had already been debunked by Georgia officials. 
• Connection to January 6 rioters: Two of the counts Trump is facing are brought under provisions included in a federal witness tampering statute that has also been used to prosecute some of the rioters who breached the Capitol. The judge assigned Trump's case, US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, is known for being among the harshest sentencers in the January 6 Capitol riot cases.
• Reaction: Leaders in Congress are so far split along partisan lines in their reaction to Trump’s indictment. Lawmakers loyal to Trump have released statements defending him and attacking the Department of Justice. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the special counsel and his team "have followed the facts and the law." The White House declined to comment, according to a spokesperson.
• What happens next: Trump is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday afternoon. Smith said his office will seek a speedy trial. The legal process is also already underway in two other cases in which the former president faces criminal charges.