Former president Donald Trump has been indicted, again, by Special Counsel Jack Smith — this time over his efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and the subsequent January 6 riot.
Trump faces four counts:
- Conspiracy to defraud the United States
- Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
- Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
- Conspiracy against rights
Molly Gaston, a prosecutor affiliated with Smith, submitted an indictment on Tuesday evening. The forty-five page document can now be read here.
In a statement, the Trump campaign described the indictment as “nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by substantial margins.”
A poll released today has Trump and Biden level at 43 percent each.
Trump had predicted he would be criminally charged on Tuesday evening following an ongoing special counsel investigation into his supposed attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
But speculations that Trump would be indicted began swirling Tuesday afternoon after members of the grand jury left a federal courthouse around 2 p.m. ET. It has been two weeks since Trump received a target letter notifying him that he is the subject in the federal criminal investigation into the January 6 riot and election interference.
Many anticipated that the grand jury would hand down a new indictment last Thursday, when Trump’s lawyers met with Smith. Instead prosecutors added an additional three charges against Trump in a superseding indictment, accusing the former president of trying to “alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal evidence.”
According to the prosecution, Trump asked his Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira to delete camera footage at his Florida estate and schemed with his valet to conceal footage from the investigators. Another count charges Trump of willfully retaining national defense information related to a presentation about military activity in another country.
Trump denied that that the security tapes had been deleted on his Truth Social account. “At the direction of Crooked Joe Biden and his Weaponized DOJ, Deranged Jack Smith is attempting to destroy the lives of two fine people who have worked for me (and have done a great job!) for a long time,” Trump wrote.
Any charge in the investigation would be the second federal indictment for the former president who was indicted last month on thirty-seven criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. In April, Trump also pleaded not guilty to an indictment from the Manhattan DA charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
