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Donald Trump‘s dance card is filling up. Trump has now been indicted by a third grand jury, this time for his actions following the 2020 election. Trump is accused of attempting to stop the peaceful transfer of power and deny the right of American citizens to elect their president. There has never been anything like this in the history of the United States. The outcome will determine what kind of a nation we want to be.

This is the Case that Counts

In a series of investigations, two previous indictments, two impeachments, and several civil lawsuits, Trump has been accused of crimes committed as president and after he left office. The charges range from business fraud to the illegal retention of classified material to the destruction of evidence.

Nothing that came before comes close to the four-count indictment handed down by a Washington, D.C. grand jury accusing the former president of multiple conspiracies against the United States, all designed to keep him in power against the will of the voters and in violation of the Constitution. Trump is accused of knowing that he lost a free and fair election, and rather than transferring power to his properly elected successor, engaging in criminal plots to block that transfer and at the same time stoke the emotions of a mob that would ultimately storm the Capitol in a riot that resulted in death.

Please, read the indictment for yourself. Unlike the constant barrage of whataboutism coming from Trump’s Republican supplicants, trying to distract attention and draw parallels between Trump and Hunter and Joe Biden, the indictment comes with evidence suitable for presentation in a court of law, as it will undoubtedly be. The sooner the better.

As I’ve previously written, we have faced a crisis of this magnitude once before. There is no question Richard Nixon would have been indicted after leaving office had he not resigned and had his successor, Gerald Ford not issued him a full pardon. He resigned under pressure from fellow Republicans who put country over party. Those Republicans do not exist today.

According to the charges, Trump used a group of “unindicted co-conspirators” not only to overturn the election, but also to put down challenges to his retention of the oval office by force. The text is chilling:

The Deputy White House Counsel reiterated to Co-Conspirator 4 that there had not been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that if the Defendant [Trump] remained in office nonetheless, there would be “riots in every major city in the United States.” Co-Conspirator 4 responded, “Well, [Deputy White House Counsel], that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.”

Indictment

The Insurrection Act allows the president to deploy the U.S. armed forces against American citizens. The alleged plot inside the White House was not merely to invalidate an election. It included the possibility of unleashing the American military against its own people.

Let that sink in. In 1800 John Adams, America’s second president, lost a bitterly contested election to his once and future friend Thomas Jefferson. A tied Electoral College threw the outcome to the House of Representatives and there were many charges of wrongdoing as the House voted. In the end Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, become the third president. Adams, a Federalist, did not contest the vote. His decision marked the first peaceful transfer of power between political opponents in the United States, a hallmark of our democracy.

This is what Trump, and the Republicans, now threaten. Trump fought the election results in sixty lawsuits before mostly Republican judges. He appealed to scores of election officials of both parties. He never won in any legal venue. So, as the indictment makes clear, he went further. There is no equivalent to Bush v. Gore. There is no connection to anything Hunter Biden may or may not have done (Breitbart’s headline: “Indictment 3.0: Jack Smith Indicts Trump Day After Hunter, Joe Biden Implicated.”.

This goes beyond any expression of free speech. There is nothing here except, in the words of the indictment, a set of conspiracies that each “targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.”

The Unindicted Co-Conspirators

The indictment names six “unindicted co-conspirators.” Why? Perhaps prosecutors want to give each of the six an opportunity to willingly testify as part of a plea deal. There has been much speculation as to their identities.

Co-conspirator 4, quoted in the indictment excerpt above, is believed to be Jeffrey Clark. Clark was the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, a mid-level job, who had allegedly suggested to Trump that he be appointed Attorney General. He promised Trump, in the words of the indictment, he would “use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.”

This is after Attorney General Bill Barr had resigned, finding no evidence of election fraud that would have changed the outcome, and Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Clark’s boss, had told Trump he would not open new investigations and that if Trump insisted, he would resign along with most of the justice department’s remaining leadership.

Co-conspirators 1 and 3 are thought to be Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, both lawyers who represented Trump in various election challenges before state and federal courts. Co-conspirator 2 is thought to be John Eastman, a constitutional lawyer who helped develop the strategy to pressure Vice-President Mike Pence into overturning the election results on January 6th.

Co-conspirator 5 is thought to be Ken Chesebro, who designed key elements of Trump’s fake elector strategy. There is no consensus on the sixth alleged co-conspirator, described as a political consultant who helped implement a plot to install false slates of electors.

As always, we take note that an indictment is not a conviction. Special prosecutor Jack Smith must now convince a jury that Trump is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury will have to be convinced not only of Trump’s actions, but also that Trump knew his claims of election fraud were false. The indictment is full of details about how Trump was repeatedly told by the people who were in the best position to know that the election was fairly decided.

In an article in Slate UCLA law professor Rick Hasen writes “U.S. v. Trump Will Be the Most Important Case in Our Nation’s History”:

Forget hush money payments to porn stars hidden as business expenses. Forget showing off classified documents about Iran attack plans to visitors, and then ordering the pool guy to erase the security tapes revealing that he was still holding onto documents that he had promised to return. Forget even corrupt attempts to interfere with election results in Georgia in 2020.

The federal indictment just handed down by special counsel Jack Smith is not only the most important indictment by far of former President Donald Trump. It is perhaps the most important indictment ever handed down to safeguard American democracy and the rule of law in any U.S. court against anyone.

Rick Hasen “U.S. v. Trump Will Be the Most Important Case in Our Nation’s History”

This case has been assigned to Judge Tanya Chutkan, see “The judge assigned to Trump’s Jan. 6 case is a tough punisher of Capitol rioters.” Chutkan has “already dealt the ex-president one of the most significant legal blows of his lifetime” — a November 2021 ruling giving the House Jan. 6 committee access to Trump’s White House files. Wrote Chutkan at the time, “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.”

Trump Trial Calendar

• Oct. 2, 2023 – Civil lawsuit for fraud by overvaluing real estate, brought against Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization by the State of New York.
• Jan. 15, 2024 – Civil defamation lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
• March 25, 2024 – Criminal charges for falsifying business records by paying hush money to Stormey Daniel brought by New York County (Manhattan).
• May 20, 2024 – Criminal charges for mishandling classified documents brought by the United States in Florida.

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