Trump faces his third and most serious indictment yet 

Welcome to Wednesday’s Early Edition from i.

World leaders are supposed to make history, but generally not the sort that is routinely being made by Donald Trump. The word ‘unprecedented’ and the former US president are used so often together the magnitude of events is easily lost. But last night’s indictment puts America, once again, in uncharted territory. Now, Trump faces four fresh charges relating to the 2020 US presidential election and the subsequent insurrection. “The attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” said special counsel Jack Smith, after the charges were revealed. The indictment said Trump’s claims of having won the election were “false, and the defendant knew they were false. But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway”. His own aides struggled with the paradox of supporting their leader while trying to uphold the truth. One said at the time: “I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.” There is now a set routine to what happens in the aftermath of a Trump indictment (this being his third). There’s the discussion over why it will galvanise Trump supporters, how his campaign is already using it to drum up financial support, how the constitution allows him to run despite being on trial. But this latest charge sheet does something pro-democracy campaigners had been waiting out for – holding the former president accountable for the events leading up to and including the 2021 riots. We’ll take a look at what happens and what it means, after the news.

Today’s news, and why it matters

High street banks made an extra £3.8bn in profit by not passing on interest rate rises to savers in the first six months of 2023, i can reveal. Some of Britain’s biggest banks, including NatWest, HSBC and Lloyds, are on track to double the amount they make from increasing the costs of mortgages compared with last year.

Product safety laws are to be revamped to better protect customers shopping online, ministers have said. The Department for Business and Trade said the plans would cut business costs and reduce unnecessary red tape with the introduction of measures such as electronic labelling, enabling them to invest more in their own firms.

Interest rates could peak as high as 6 per cent by Christmas, according to leading economists, with the first of further rises expected from the Bank of England this week. Economists told i that they expect the central bank to impose further hikes at meetings in September, November and December and that it could take up to a year before rates starts falling.

The former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier has been ousted from the House of Commons after more than 10 per cent of her constituents voted to recall her for breaching Covid rules. Her seat of Rutherglen and Hamilton West will now be contested in a by-election, the first to take place in Scotland after a Westminster recall petition.

Targets on the sale of electric vehicles set to come in next year have sparked fresh tensions in the Cabinet, fuelling splits in the wider Conservative Party about the Government’s net zero agenda. Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, is pushing for a delay on the zero emission mandate, which requires at least 22 per cent of sales of any make of car to be electric or else risk a £15,000 per vehicle fine for manufacturers.

Five key takeaways from Donald Trump’s latest indictment:

What are the charges? The 45-page indictment alleges Trump conspired to defraud the US by preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden as president following the 2020 election, and conspired to remove voters of their right to a fair election. It contains four charges, 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 said Trump’s claims of having won the election were “false, and the defendant knew they were false. But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway — to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, to create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and to erode public faith in the administration of the election.” It said he and his co-conspirators knowingly made false claims of election fraud to convince officials in seven battleground states to submit fraudulent slates of electors. “The defendant pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. Read more here.

What prison sentences could he face? If found guilty, Trump could face a maximum of 20 years in jail, the BBC reported. The US Department of Justice has so far charged more than 1,000 people over the 6 January Capitol riots. Of those, 63% sentenced have received jail time, and the median sentence of that prison time was 120 days, NPR reports. But that’s not necessarily a guide to how things will play out for Trump. The latest charges are not the only ones facing the former president. In total, there are 78 charges against the former US president, with penalties ranging from a fine to years in prison.

What do we know about the six co-conspirators? The indictment says that Trump enlisted six people to help him try to overturn the 2020 election. They are not named, and importantly not charged, but some of the details included in the document give clues to their identities. Co-conspirator 1 is described as “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” A lawyer for Rudy Giuliani acknowledged he “is alleged to be co-conspirator No 1,” the New York Times reported. Co-conspirator 2 is said in the indictment to be “an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.” As for number 3, the indictment describes them as: “an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy’. Nonetheless, the defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-conspirator 3’s disinformation. Co-conspirator 4 is “a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.” Number 4 is “an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” And the sixth is “a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”

Will it affect his presidential bid? Tuesday’s indictment is likely to have a similar effect to the two before it, in that they will help to strengthen Trump’s support. Recent polls have put the Republican front runner even further ahead – at least 37 points ahead of his rival Ron DeSantis. As Andrew Buncombe writes: “Each previous time Trump was indicted he saw his poll numbers soar. Trump is already trying to raise money on the back of these latest charges, telling supporters in an email: ‘Their only hope is to try and send me to JAIL for the rest of my life.’” Read his full analysis here. But it does raise other questions around his potential presidency. Special Counsel Jack Smith is hoping for a “speedy trial”, and given he faces more than one criminal trial, Trump’s diary is going to quickly fill up with court dates and appearances. At the moment, Trump faces charges of falsifying business records about a hush money payoff in New York, and that trial begins in late March. In Florida he is accused of illegally possessing classified documents, in a trial due to begin in late May. And in Georgia prosecutors are investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse his election loss in 2020. A decision on whether to indict the former president is expected this month. All of these will mean Trump will be forced to step away at times from the campaign trail. And a number of complicated legal scenarios could arise if Trump is convicted but also becomes president, although many have raised the prospect that he or another Republican victor could pardon him (although this is not an option if he’s convicted in New York or Georgia due to them being state offences). But the New York Times also highlights another possibility, that if Trump was jailed he could be removed from office under the 25th Amendment as “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

Why Mike Pence might become a key witness: The indictment includes new details from the former vice president, including his “contemporaneous notes” about his interactions with Trump over the election results. In one, on 25 December, Pence called Trump to wish him a Merry Christmas, prosecutors said. But Trump “quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the vice president reject electoral votes that day.” Pence told Trump he didn’t have the authority to do so. In another call several days later on New Year’s Day, Trump admonished Pence for not backing a legal case that could have determined if the VP had to authority to reject or return Electoral College votes to the states. Trump is said to have told Pence “you’re too honest”. One analyst told CBS given the pressure Trump put the former vice president under and the notes he took, Pence could become “the most important witness in this case”.

Around the world

 Fresh evidence has emerged about horrific sexual violence allegedly used against Ukrainian prisoners detained in Kherson’s “torture chambers”, in a report by an international human rights law firm. Nearly half of the detainees were subjected to torture in the detention centres while the region was under Russian control, Global Rights Compliance’s Mobile Justice Team found in new research shared with i.

Three months on from the night she and her family were attacked by a mob, Nancy Chingthianniang still endures sleepless nights. The unrest in India’s north-eastern state of Manipur came to global attention two weeks ago when a video emerged showing two women being paraded naked through the street by a large group of men, before reportedly being dragged into a field and gang raped. The same fate almost befell Ms Chingthianniang.

For many Britons who own holiday homes in Europe or dream of moving abroad, post-Brexit travel rules are proving a nightmare. Non-EU citizens are only able to stay in an EU country for 90 out of every 180 days, and timing trips to fit in with this and avoid fines or even deportation can be a headache for people with property overseas.

Nasa says it has picked up a ‘heartbeat’ signal from its Voyager 2 spacecraft after it lost contact with it 20 billion kilometres away from Earth. It means the 46-year-old craft is alive and operating and is in “good health,” the space agency said.

 Watch out for…

 New guidance issued by the Minstry of Justice on how police should respond to low-level offending, including shoplifting, drug possession and theft 

 Thoughts for the day

 As a GP I respect life coaches, but they won’t get people off long-term sick leave. Their input will help patients, but it can’t get to the root cause of why they’re on long-term sick leave, writes Dr Punam Krishan.

Children who shoplift are often acting out, and jailing them helps no-one. People in pain do weird things, and they deserve our sympathy, argues Emily Watkins.

I know all too well that even a typhoon will not stop a bride on her wedding day. Seeing that bride and her guests in beautiful wedding clothes and wellingtons filled me with joy, reveals Tiff Stevenson.

Culture Break

 ‘The show changed my life’: The people who were inspired to come out by Heartstopper. The Netflix show and its sensitively handled queer storylines have given some fans so much more than just entertainment, writes Alexandra Pollard.

 The Big Read

 ‘Children aren’t breathing toxic air’: The community welcoming low-traffic neighbourhoods. Javiera, a local Hackney resident and motorist told i the traffic controls were ‘wonderful’ because of the impact on pollution and congestion.

Sport

 Women’s World Cup: How a tactical tweak unlocked England’s attack and showed they can cope without Keira Walsh. Sarina Wiegman’s 3-5-2 caught China by surprise and proves she can be flexible with her tactics, writes Daniel Storey.

 Something to brighten your day

 ‘I’m escaping the cost of living crisis by going on a £90k three-year cruise’. Adam, who is in his late forties, feels now is the time to see the world while he is still active and well. He argues that rather than paying ever-rising bills at home, he worked out that he can pay around the same amount to live at sea for three years.