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Washington: Donald Trump has been indicted for the third time in four months, this time for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election and the deadly attack on the US Capitol building.
In yet another history-making moment, the 77-year-old Republican – who is the overwhelming frontrunner to win his party’s 2024 presidential nomination – faces a fresh spate of criminal charges, putting him on a collision course with the justice system as he ratchets up his campaign to return to the White House.
Former US president Donald Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith.Credit: AP, Reuters
The indictment is the culmination of a months-long probe by Special Counsel Jack Smith – the same federal prosecutor who has charged Trump for his mishandling of classified documents.
Days after hitting Trump with additional charges in that case, Smith is now indicting Trump over his actions surrounding the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, which included pressuring his then vice president Mike Pence to stop the certification of Biden’s election victory and urging Trump followers to “fight like hell” to keep him in power.
Trump’s efforts to remain in office involved stoking lies about voter fraud, embracing a scheme designed to use fake electors to flip electoral college votes in key states, and fuelling the protest that led to the Capitol riots.
The insurgency left several people dead, about 150 police officers injured, and a nation shocked and divided.
Many of his top aides, allies and members of the former Trump administration had been called in to the Grand Jury investigation, including Pence, former chief of staff, Mark Meadows and his White House counsel, Pat Cipollone.
Trump, however, continues to maintain his innocence. He has also fundraised millions dollars in donations by leveraging his legal troubles to claim he is the victim of a witch-hunt designed to stop him returning to the White House.
But despite Trump’s defiance, the latest case could prove damaging for the former US president at a time when many Republicans – including some of his primary race rivals – are attempting to move on from the “drama” of the past.
“It’s going to keep on going,” Trump’s former ambassador Nikki Haley said in a recent interview on Fox News last month.
Rioters loyal to Donald Trump rally at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.Credit: AP
“I mean the rest of this primary election is going to be in reference to Trump. It’s going to be about lawsuits, it’s going to be about legal fees, it’s going to be about judges, and it’s just going continue to be a further and further distraction.”
Former Texas Congressman Will Hurd, who is also vying for the nomination and is one of the few Republicans who has taken on Trump directly, was even more aggressive at a Lincoln Dinner in Iowa last week.
“Donald Trump is not running for president to make America great again. Donald Trump is not running for president to represent the people that voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison,” he said, as the crowd booed his comments.
The latest indictment adds to a growing number of court cases Trump will have to manage as he campaigns for the Republican primaries, which begin in Iowa on January 15 next year, followed by the November 2024 presidential election if wins the GOP nomination to run against Joe Biden.
This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice shows documents seized during the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.Credit: AP
Last month, the federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents set May 20 as the trial date for in that case. Most of those charges against him relate to the “wilful retention” of documents in violation of the Espionage Act, a national security law that comes with a maximum 10-year jail term.
However, that trial is likely to be delayed after Smith on Thursday night hit Trump with additional charges, claiming that he asked the property manager of Mar-a-Lago, Carlos De Oliviera to have surveillance camera footage deleted to stop investigators from knowing whether boxes of documents had been moved to avoid complying with a federal subpoena.
As part of the new charges, the former president is also accused of retaining a classified document detailing a military plan of attack on Iran, which he showed to a writer, publisher and two staff members at his Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey in July 2021.
Trump will also be trialled in Manhattan over alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with him in 2016.
He is also facing a civil state trial over fraud accusations in October, brought on by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Another trial to determine whether he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll (who Trump was recently found to have sexually abused) is set to open on January 15 — the same day as the Iowa caucuses begin.
A civil trial also looms on January 29, in which Trump, his company and three of his children have been accused of dodgy business ventures.
And a potential fourth indictment looms from the battleground state of Georgia, over Trump’s alleged attempts to interfere with 2020 election votes in that state.
“The work is accomplished,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said over the weekend. “We’ve been working for two and half years. We’re ready to go.”
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