Donald Trump charged over efforts to overturn 2020 US Presidential election
Former US president Donald Trump faces fresh criminal charges following an investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The charges stem from an investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith into allegations that Mr Trump and his allies tried to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in the election.
Mr Trump has been ordered to make an initial appearance in federal court on Thursday. He denies doing any wrongdoing.
The indictment alleges Mr Trump conspired to defraud the United States by preventing Congress from certifying Mr Biden as president, and conspired to remove voters of their right to a fair election.
He has been indicted on four counts, including: Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, and Conspiracy against Rights.
It alleges that he and six other unnamed people tried to overturn the election results. The prosecutors argue Trump knew his protestations that the election was fraudulent were false, but that he repeated them to “create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger and erode public faith in the administration of the election”.
Prosecutors cited an example in Georgia, where Mr Trump claimed more than 10,000 dead people voted in four days after that state’s top elections official told him that was not true. Mr Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden.
The Republican contended that there were 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania after his own acting attorney general told him that was not true. He alleged more than 30,000 noncitizens voted in Arizona even though his own campaign manager said that was false.
In a statement, The Trump campaign said he had always followed the law, and that the indictment was an “un-American witch hunt” and part of lawless “persecutions”.
A Trump spokesperson likened the new indictment to “Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” calling them “un-American”.
This is the third time Mr Trump has been charged in the space of four months. He is campaigning to re-take the presidency and is the current Republican frontrunner in the 2024 election.
Earlier, Mr Trump posted on his truth social account, saying: “I hear that deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President”,” he wrote on the social media site.”
Mr Trump has also been charged with unlawfully retaining classified government documents, and obstructing justice. He has appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to these allegations.
With additional reporting from agencies.
