Former US president, Donald Trump has been accused of planning to rig the 2020 election in his favour.
He is charged with four counts, including conspiring to defraud the United States, interfering with a witness, and conspiring to violate the rights of citizens.
A probe into the circumstances leading up to the disturbance at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, comes to a close with the indictment.
The 77-year-old candidate for president, Mr. Trump, rejects accusations of malfeasance. He referred to the case as “ridiculous” on social media.
The Republican senator has already faced charges for mishandling secret documents and fabricating financial records to hide a hush-money payment to a porn star.
The election probe has concentrated on Mr. Trump’s conduct between the two months between his defeat to Joe Biden and the violence in Washington, DC, where his supporters rushed Congress as lawmakers formally proclaimed the Democrat the winner.
Special attorney Jack Smith, who is in charge of the investigation, declared that the attack on the nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was a first for the seat of American democracy.
“It was fueled by lies, just as the indictment alleged.”
In his brief closing remarks, Mr. Smith vowed to work towards “a speedy trial,” stressing that the former president “must be presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
On Thursday in Washington, DC, Mr. Trump is scheduled to appear in court.
Six anonymous co-conspirators are listed in the 45-page indictment: four solicitors, a justice department employee, and a political consultant.
A “conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the function of the federal government through dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” is alleged in the court document against Mr. Trump.
In response to Mr. Trump’s charges of voter fraud in 2020, the prosecution states: “These claims were false and the defendant knew that they were false.”
Additionally, according to the report, Mr. Trump made an effort—which was unsuccessful—to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to try to prevent Mr. Biden from being sworn in as President on January 6, 2021.
The defendant and co-conspirators “exploited the disruption as violence broke out by stepping up their efforts to levy false allegations of election fraud and persuade members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those allegations.”
The indictment also cites the various senior Trump campaign employees and US government officials who are alleged to have told the outgoing president that he had lost and that there was no proof of voter fraud.
The Republican Party’s selection process for its next presidential nominee is currently being led by Mr. Trump, who is currently facing 78 criminal counts in total across three cases.
Whoever prevails will face off against President Biden, the presumed Democratic nominee, in November 2024.
With these most recent accusations, Mr. Trump will have three criminal trials to attend over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, which will make a second presidential campaign more difficult.
These are the most serious allegations he has yet to face, according to BBC North America editor Sarah Smith.
But in a statement, the Trump team claimed that the indictment from Tuesday amounted to electoral meddling.
The campaign claimed that the persecution of President Trump and his followers was “illegal and reminiscent of authoritarian, dictatorial regimes like the former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and others.”
The statement concluded, “These un-American witch hunts will fail.”
Republican challengers for 2024 were eager to comment. While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claimed the allegations demonstrated the “weaponization of the federal government,” Vice President Mike Pence stressed the president should never place himself above the Constitution.
According to a joint statement from Democratic leaders in Congress, “This indictment is the most serious and 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.”
Numerous senior Trump administration officials and advisers, including Mr. Pence and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, were questioned as part of the probe.
In a related investigation, Georgian prosecutors are looking into whether the former president improperly coerced local officials to ignore Mr. Biden’s election triumph.
This month, Atlanta prosecutors are likely to decide whether or not to charge Mr. Trump.
Republicans in other states are purportedly aiding Mr. Trump’s campaign to prevent Mr. Biden from gaining office, and this is being looked into.
To demonstrate that Mr. Trump lost due to widespread voter fraud, state prosecutors in Michigan prosecuted a former Republican candidate for attorney general and another Trump supporter with interfering with voting machines.
Trump became the first US president to ever be impeached twice as a result of the riot at Congress, which resulted in his second impeachment by the House of Representatives.