Trump indictment updates: Ex-president faces four counts over 2020 election

John Lauro, Trump’s lawyer, has called the latest indictment of the former president “an attack on free speech and political advocacy”.

Lauro said in an interview on CNN on Tuesday night that it is “an effort to not only criminalise but also to censor free speech” from Trump.

He said Trump was being told by people after the 2020 presidential election “that there were problems” with it and “he also saw in real time that the rules were changing without the state legislatures weighing in”.

He said Trump was relying on the advice of a lawyer, John Eastman.

Eastman was the architect of a legal strategy aimed at keeping Trump in power.

Lauro said it is up to the judge to determine how Trump will appear for his Thursday court date but that he will appear either virtually or in person in Washington, DC.

The White House has declined to comment on the latest charges against Trump.

“We would refer you to the Justice Department, which conducts its criminal investigations independently,” said Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson.

US media have identified four other co-conspirators accused of assisting Trump in his effort to overturn the 2020 election.

They are Trump’s former personal lawyer John Eastman, his allies Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, according to the CNN broadcaster and the New York Times.

Eastman, identified as co-conspirator 2, circulated a two-page memorandum with a plan for the then-vice president to overturn the election while presiding over the Electoral College certification on January 6, 2021, CNN said.

Powell, identified as co-conspirator 3, filed a lawsuit against the governor of the state of Georgia alleging “massive election fraud”, but the petition was dismissed in December 2020.

Chesebro, identified as co-conspirator 5, was involved in an attempt to seek slates of fake electors to support Trump’s claim that he won the 2020 election.

Clark, identified as co-conspirator 4, meanwhile, tried to get himself installed as attorney general so he could launch voter fraud investigations in Georgia and other swing states, according to the Reuters news agency.

A lawyer for Rudy Giuliani has said that the former New York City mayor is one of the alleged co-conspirators in Trump’s efforts to overturn his election defeat, according to The New York Times.

“It appears that Mayor Giuliani is alleged to be co-conspirator No 1,” Robert J Costello said.

The lawyer criticised the indictment as “election interference” and said it “eviscerates the First Amendment”.

“Every fact that Mayor Giuliani possesses about this case establishes the good-faith basis President Donald Trump had for the action that he took during the two-month period charged in the indictment,” he added.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department’s investigation of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election was the largest in his office’s history.

“Immediately after the January 6 attack on our democracy, the career men and women of the Justice Department engaged in what has become the largest investigation in our history,” Garland said in Philadelphia.

“Mr Smith and his team of experienced, principled, career agents and prosecutors have followed the facts and the law wherever they lead. Any questions about this matter will have to be answered by the filings made in a courtroom.”

The Justice Department has also charged Trump with 40 counts related to mishandling classified documents.

Trump is to appear on Thursday before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a former assistant public defender who was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama.

Chutkan has stood out as one of the toughest punishers of the Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, often handing down prison sentences that are harsher than Justice Department prosecutors recommended.

She has sentenced at least 38 people convicted of Capitol riot-related crimes, according to The Associated Press news agency. All 38 received prison terms, ranging from 10 days to more than five years, the AP said.

Chutkan has said prison can be a powerful deterrent against the threat of another insurrection.

“Every day we’re hearing about reports of anti-democratic factions of people plotting violence, the potential threat of violence, in 2024,” she said in December 2021 before sentencing a Florida man who attacked police officers to more than five years behind bars. At the time, that sentence was the longest for a January 6 case.

“It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment,” she said.

Despite his mounting legal woes, Trump remains a serious presidential candidate. A recent New York Times/Siena poll showed Trump easily leading the race for the Republican nomination with 54 percent support – far ahead of his primary rivals.

The poll, which was released before the indictment, also found Trump in a virtual tie in a potential match-up with Democratic President Biden in the general elections.

Mike Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president and is now running against him in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has slammed the former president after the indictment.

Pence fell out with Trump after refusing to use his ceremonial role in counting the electoral college votes to delay the certification of the election or overturn the 2020 vote.

“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 in a statement.

“On January 6th, Former President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. I chose the Constitution and I always will.”

US law does not disqualify people charged with a crime from running for president. Even if convicted, Trump can continue his campaign and serve in the White House should he win in 2024.

Still, Trump’s upcoming court dates could interfere with his campaign schedule. But so far, he has seen a boost in popularity among Republicans since his first indictment in New York late in March.

Democratic lawmakers and officials have responded to the third indictment of former President Trump by emphasising the seriousness of the case and stating that Trump’s status should not exempt him from legal accountability.

“The insurrection on January 6, 2021, was one of the saddest and most infamous days in American history, personally orchestrated by Donald Trump and fueled by his insidious Big Lie in an attempt to undermine the 2020 election,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.

“This indictment is the most serious and most consequential thus far and will stand as a stark reminder to generations of Americans that no one, including a president of the United States, is above the law.”

Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “No man, not even a former President, is above the law. The anger and resentment Donald Trump stoked with his ‘Big Lie’ put the country a half step away from a constitutional crisis.”

The White House referred reporters to the Justice Department when asked about the indictment.

Attorney General Merrick Garland called January 6 an “attack on our democracy” and expressed confidence in the work of the prosecutors.

Right-wing Congressman Matt Gaetz has renewed calls to defund Special Counsel Smith’s office.

“DEFUND JACK SMITH’S WITCH HUNT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP!” Gaetz wrote in a social media post, sharing a link to a bill he introduced in July that would “prohibit federal funding” to the top prosecutor’s office.

The measure has no chance of passing in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The indictment refers repeatedly to “co-conspirators” who aided Trump in his efforts to interfere in the 2020 elections.

The document lists six individuals as co-conspirators without identifying them by name: four lawyers, a Justice Department official and a political consultant.

The six individuals are not co-defendants, meaning they have not been charged alongside Trump.

Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy has called new charges against Trump “un-American”. He also said he would “commit to pardoning Trump for this indictment”, a promise he previously made when earlier charges against the former president were announced.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, he suggested that efforts to prosecute Trump for crimes concerning January 6 could invite further violence.

“If you tell people they can’t scream, that’s when they tear things down,” he said. “If we fail to admit the truth, Jan 6 will just be a preview of far worse to come & I don’t want to see us get there.”

Jim Jordan, a Trump ally who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has come to the former president’s defence, saying that he “did nothing wrong”.

Florida Governor and presidential contender Ron DeSantis has shared a statement promising to end “the weaponisation of the federal government”, a common criticism among Republicans who reject the charges Trump faces.

Though the statement comes in the wake of Trump’s third criminal indictment, it fails to reference the former president by name.

DeSantis is seen as Trump’s most serious rival for the GOP nomination but trails him by a margin of about 37 points. On Tuesday, he called Washington, DC, a “swamp” on social media but hedged by noting that, while he has “seen reports, I have not read the indictment”.

The statement shows the tightrope DeSantis is attempting to walk as he tries to attack the GOP frontrunner without alienating Republican voters who might feel sympathy for Trump.

Former Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the charges Trump is facing are “very serious”, but she stressed that justice must take its course.

“Like every criminal defendant, the former President is innocent until proven guilty,” Pelosi said in a statement.

“Our Founders made clear that, in the United States of America, no one is above the law – not even the former President of the United States.”

Democratic US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has said that Trump “must be held accountable” for his actions after the 2020 elections.

“The American people deserve justice,” the progressive lawmaker wrote in a social media post.

As with previous charges, Trump has lashed out against the new indictment, portraying it as an effort to derail his 2024 bid for the White House.

His campaign went as far as comparing prosecuting the former president to the authoritarianism in Nazi Germany.

“The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” the Trump campaign said in a statement.

“President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution, with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys.”

Republican officials and media figures have decried the newest charges against Trump as a weaponisation of the criminal legal system, leaning into familiar themes as they rally behind the party’s presidential frontrunner.

In a Twitter post, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said she would seek to defund prosecutor Jack Smith’s office.

“President Trump is innocent and we must end the witch hunts!” she said.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy likewise suggested the indictments were an effort to divert attention from alleged wrongdoing by President Biden’s son Hunter, a persistent target for scrutiny by Republican lawmakers.

“Everyone in America could see what was going to come next: DOJ’s attempt to distract from the news and attack the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, President Trump,” McCarthy said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Trump is facing four charges in the election interference case:

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

The indictment accuses Trump of knowingly pushing to “oppress, threaten, and intimidate one or more persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States – that is, the right to vote, and to have one’s vote counted”.