For the first time in U.S. history, a former president has been criminally charged with conspiring to overturn an election. On Tuesday, Donald Trump was indicted on four counts including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the civil rights of citizens — the right of their vote to be counted. The indictment centers on Trump’s efforts to stay in office after Joe Biden defeated him in November 2020.

Trump, who is the Republican front-runner in the 2024 race, now faces two federal indictments as well as a state indictment, a criminal case in New York. No other U.S. president has ever been indicted before. Trump also faces a possible fourth indictment in Georgia for election interference. This is special counsel Jack Smith speaking Tuesday.

Jack Smith: “The attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6th, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”

Trump’s lawyer John Lauro decried the indictment as an “attack on free speech and political advocacy.”
The 45-page indictment also references six unnamed co-conspirators. It is believed the list includes four of Trump’s lawyers — Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro — as well as Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official.

Trump’s trial has been assigned to District Judge Tanya Chutkan. She is an Obama appointee who has already overseen numerous cases linked to the January 6 insurrection — often sentencing defendants to longer terms than prosecutors sought. We’ll have more on the historic indictment after headlines.