August 1, 2023 Trump indicted in special counsel’s 2020 election interference probe

Special counsel Jack Smith unveiled his case alleging that former President Donald Trump broke several laws in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, with a grand jury indictment returned Tuesday that illustrated the depth and breadth of the federal criminal investigation.

Prosecutors said in the new charging documents that Trump “was determined to remain in power” after losing the 2020 election, and that he and six unindicted co-conspirators orchestrated a plot to overturn the results on and leading up to January 6, 2021.

Trump, who has derided Smith’s case as a politically motivated “fake indictment,” has been summoned to appear before a magistrate judge on Thursday.

Here are the key takeaways:

Trump accused of knowingly spreading “prolific lies”: Prosecutors detailed the “prolific lies” that Trump made in the wake of the 2020 election, including knowingly pushing false claims of voter fraud and voting machines switching votes, the indictment says, despite state and federal officials telling him the claims were wrong.

Trump “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won” the indictment states, adding that the “claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false.”

Allegedly organized fake electors: The indictment alleges that Trump and his co-conspirators effectively tricked individuals from seven targeted states into creating and submitting certificates asserting they were legitimate electors.

The goal was to create a “fake controversy” at the certification proceeding in those states on December 14, 2020, and “position the Vice President – presiding on January 6 as President of the Senate – to supplant legitimate electors” with Trump’s fake ones.

“Exploited” the January 6 attack: The indictment alleges that Trump and co-conspirators “exploited” the “violence” and “chaos” of the Capitol attack – continuing efforts to convince members of Congress to delay the certification of the election that day while rebuffing pleas that he direct the rioters to depart.

In a phone call the evening of the riot, Trump refused a request from his then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to withdraw his objections and allow for Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results, prosecutors said in the new indictment.

New details on Pence: Many of the revelations in Tuesday’s indictment appear to be the fruits of aggressive legal battles brought by prosecutors to secure testimony from close presidential aides – including new details about the communications Trump had with Pence in the bid to convince the vice president to disrupt Congress’ certification vote.

More to come: The normally tight-lipped Jack Smith made a rare public statement with the unsealing of the indictment, making clear that his team’s “investigation of individuals continues and emphasizing that the Justice Department was committed to “ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day.”

As the investigation chugs along, and the possibility looms that others will be charged as part of the probe, the criminal proceedings against Trump will unfold in federal court in DC, starting with an appearance he’ll make before a magistrate judge scheduled for Thursday.

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Donald Trump has been indicted on federal charges related to 2020 election subversion, a stunning third time this year that the former president has faced criminal charges.

But could the former president, who remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, assume the Oval Office again if convicted of the alleged crimes? In short, yes.

University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard L. Hasen – one of the country’s leading experts on election law – said Trump still has a path to serving as president should he win reelection in 2024.

Could a president serve from prison? That’s less clear.

“How someone would serve as president from prison is a happily untested question,” Hasen said.

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Trump defense attorney John Lauro appears on CNN on Tuesday, August 1.

Former President Donald Trump’s defense attorney John Lauro said he thinks a potential trial following Tuesday’s indictment could last “nine months or a year.”

Collins pointed out that it is Trump who has been complaining that the Department of Justice took so long to bring the indictment.

Lauro said he will need to see the evidence, but said his client deserves as much time as any other American.

Collins pointed out that the indictment spells out that Trump went beyond speech and pursued “unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes,” including fake electors.  

Lauro said his client was following advice from his attorneys and that he is allowed to point out problems with the election. “He had every right, in fact a responsibility as the United States president, to raise those issues – and now his advocacy is being criminalized.” 

As for the call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump asked him to find votes, Lauro said, “no one was suggesting doing anything illegal.”

According to the indictment, Trump “lied” to Raffensperger “to induce him” to overturn the election. The indictment also highlights how Trump “disparaged” election workers and “raised allegations” of voter fraud that had already been debunked by Georgia officials. 

Lauro called the case a “game-changer” because of its effect on political speech.

Trump is scheduled to appear at the Washington, DC, federal courthouse at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday. Special counsel Jack Smith said his office will seek a speedy trial.

Sen. Ted Budd speaks on border security and Title 42 during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 11, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Lawmakers loyal to Donald Trump have released statements defending the former president and attacking the Department of Justice after the news of the grand jury indictment broke Tuesday. 

Here’s what they are saying:

Sen. Ted Budd called for President Joe Biden’s administration to be “held accountable” after Trump was indicted in the federal investigation into 2020 election interference and the January 6 insurrection. “Again and again, the Biden administration has weaponized the justice system to target his chief political opponent,” Budd posted to Twitter.

Sen. Eric Schmitt tweeted: “They know they can’t beat Trump given Biden’s disastrous failures and scandals so Biden’s DOJ has created a two tiered system of justice targeting his chief political opponent.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn posted: “The news of another indictment against President Trump is no shock ahead of 2024. The Left knows they can’t beat Trump amid Biden’s failures, so they’re trying to take him out with criminal charges. Biden’s abusing two tiers of justice to target his greatest political opponent.”

Sen. J.D. Vance said in a statement, “Joe Biden is indicting Donald Trump (again) because he’s losing in this presidential race. He would rather throw Donald Trump in prison than face him at the ballot box … Luckily, the American people get a say, and when they reelect Donald Trump, it will be time to clean house at the Department of Justice.”

Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted: “Biden DOJ unveils the latest effort to stop Trump from running against Biden - totally unprecedented in American history,” and Senator Rick Scott posted, “It seems like every time we learn more about Biden’s shady business dealings, his DOJ indicts President Trump.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of GOP leadership, called today a “dark day in America” and claimed Trump was within his rights to “correctly raise concerns” about the election in 2020, though there’s been no evidence of any widespread fraud. “Today’s sham indictment of Donald Trump is yet another desperate attempt to distract attention away from the mounting evidence of Joe Biden’s direct involvement in his family’s illegal influence peddling scheme - one of the greatest political corruption scandals in history.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to vote for Trump even if he is behind bars, a pretty remarkable statement that encapsulates the reality inside the GOP right now: that their nominee for president could be a convicted felon. 

Rep. Jim Jordan, House Judiciary Committee chair, tweeted: “When you drain The Swamp, the Swamp fights back. President Trump did nothing wrong!”

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers said that the indictment shows the strength of the justice system.

Sen. Dick Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “No person is above the law — and violations should be pursued no matter how powerful the person is.”

Rep. Dan Goldman said that individuals “must be held accountable” for their role on Jan. 6, 2021. “ If Donald Trump believes that the legal or factual basis for these charges is unfounded, he can make that argument to a judge, who decides the law, or a jury, which decides the facts. But this case should be litigated in the court of law, not the court of public opinion and most definitely not the halls of Congress.”

District Judge Tanya Chutkan.

District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who’s assigned to preside over former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Washington, DC, has repeatedly spoken out in very strong terms against the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and disrupt the transfer of power. 

In November 2021, Chutkan forcefully rejected Trump’s attempts to block the House select committee investigating January 6 from accessing more than 700 pages of records from his White House.

Chutkan has been outspoken about the riot at several sentencing hearings – calling the violence an assault on American democracy and warning of future danger from political violence – and has repeatedly gone over what prosecutors have requested for convicted rioters’ prison sentences. 

At a December 2021 sentencing hearing, she looked ahead to the 2024 election, saying that “every day we are hearing about reports of anti-democratic factions, people plotting potential violence in 2024.”

Chutkan has even tacitly referenced Trump during criminal sentencings, saying to one rioter that he “did not go to the United States Capitol out of any love for our country. … He went for one man.”

At a sentencing hearing on October 4, 2021, she acknowledged the nationwide attention on the Capitol riot cases. 

At that same hearing, she also rejected comparisons between January 6 and the 2020 protests against racial inequality. 

Read more:

DC Metropolitan Police Department officers are seen at Florida Avenue and P Street, NE, on Thursday, September 22, 2022.

Following Tuesday’s indictment of Donald Trump, Washington, DC, metro police said they are working with federal law enforcement partners to plan for the former president’s initial court appearance on Thursday. 

The federal courthouse, where Trump is scheduled to appear for his initial hearing Thursday — unless the hearing is held virtually — is situated several blocks from the US Capitol.

Multiple law enforcement agencies operate in the area, including National Park Police, Capitol Police, DC police and the US Marshals Service.  

Law enforcement agencies would likely enter what are called memorandums of understanding prior to Trump’s appearance, a source familiar with the planning told CNN.

These agreements allow for agencies to cross over into one another’s jurisdictions if an agency called for backup.  

The indictment against former President Donald Trump charging him by the Justice Department for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, is photographed Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington, DC. 

The indictment includes new details about the interactions between former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence ahead of January 6, 2021 – insights that special counsel Jack Smith likely gained after compelling Pence to testify following a protracted fight over executive privilege.  

Among those insights is a Christmas Day phone call Pence made to Trump to “wish him a Merry Christmas.” Trump, however, “quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the Vice President reject electoral votes that day,” the indictment says. 

Pence pushed back, telling Trump again, “You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome,” according to the indictment. 

The fight over executive privilege ended this March when a federal judge ruled that Pence and several other former Trump aides would have to testify to the grand jury about their conversations with Trump. Pence testified before the grand jury in April.  

Pence also appears to have provided “contemporaneous notes” to investigators, with the indictment saying that those materials showed how Trump “falsely told the Vice President that the “Justice Dept [was] finding major infractions.”   

According to the indictment, Trump told Pence multiple times in the days before January 6 that he had the right to reject the 2020 election results.  

In one conversation on January 1, Pence told Trump he didn’t think there was a constitutional basis for Trump’s claims and that the vice president lacked the authority to change the results. 

The indictment goes on to say that on January 5, 2021, Trump met alone with Pence, again pushing him to obstruct the certification. When Pence refused, Trump “grew frustrated and told the Vice President that the Defendant would have to publicly criticize him.”  

CNN previously reported on Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence in the lead-up to January 6, 2021, including a six-point plan posited by Trump-aligned attorney John Eastman for the then-vice president to overturn the election results by throwing out electors for Joe Biden in seven states, among other things.

A senior adviser to former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign called claims of supposed voter fraud “conspiracy sh*t beamed down from the mothership,” according to the indictment.

The advisor was Jason Miller, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Miller’s attorney declined to comment.

According to the indictment, Miller spoke with Trump on a daily basis and “informed him on multiple occasions that various fraud claims were untrue.”

Miller, identified as “Senior Campaign Advisor” throughout the indictment, also expressed frustration that many of the claims from Trump’s legal team could not be substantiated. 

With respect to a “persistent false claim” regarding the State Farm Arena polling place in Georgia, “the Senior Campaign Advisor wrote in an email, ‘When our research and campaign legal team can’t back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team, you can see why we’re 0-32 on our cases. I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy sh*t beamed down from the mothership.’”

The indictment against former President Donald Trump charging him by the Justice Department for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, is photographed Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington, DC. 

Former President Donald Trump is facing criminal charges over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and stay in office.

The indictment, which was handed down and unsealed Tuesday, describes the plot to overturn the 2020 election which culminated in the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Even before that, Trump engaged in a pressure campaign on state election workers, lawmakers and others, the indictment said.

You can read the entire document here.

As part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, Trump was charged with:

Here’s what else we learned today:

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani departs the federal courthouse, Friday, May 19, 2023, in Washington, DC.

Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Rudy Giuliani, said that Tuesday’s indictment “eviscerates the First Amendment” and claimed it “criminalizes the ruling regime’s number one political opponent for daring to ask questions about the 2020 election results.”

Goodman went on to attack President Joe Biden and brought up the ongoing case involving Hunter Biden.

“The news today is particularly egregious in light of the growing evidence proving that Joe Biden and his family made millions of dollars in bribes from America’s most intransigent adversaries,” Goodman stated.

Some context: The indictment against Trump says he “enlisted co-conspirators to assist him in his criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power.”

The charging documents repeatedly reference six of these co-conspirators, but as is common practice, their identities are withheld because they have not been charged with any crimes. However, based on quotes in the indictment and other context, CNN can identify five of the six co-conspirators, one of whom is Giuliani. 

Among other things, the indictment quotes from a voicemail that Co-Conspirator 1 left “for a United States Senator” on January 6, 2021. The quotes in the indictment match quotes from Giuliani’s call intended for GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, as reported by CNN and other outlets.

The magistrate judge’s courtroom in Washington, DC, was nearly full with observers and silent when a senior Justice Department prosecutor, who has worked with the special counsel’s office, presented the indictment against former President Donald Trump just after 5 p.m. ET.

The process before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya took less than five minutes. 

Earlier in the day, all but one of the grand jurors had left the courthouse around 2 p.m. ET after voting in secret, while the foreperson stayed behind. 

Press and other observers filled the courtroom—an anomaly to witness grand jury returns, especially after hours — after Trump had posted that his indictment was expected later in the afternoon.

Then just after 5 p.m. ET, the Justice Department and other officials filled the courtroom. A different, unaffiliated grand jury returned two unrelated indictments, then the federal prosecutor approached the judge with court paperwork.

Without saying any name or initials, the judge said she had reviewed the paperwork, found that the grand jury had a quorum today, and had voted in favor of an indictment. 

The prosecutor asked to seal the indictment and issue a summons to the defendant.

In court papers made public later on Tuesday, the brief sealing of the documents was requested for public safety reasons, so the Justice Department could alert Trump’s attorneys and some witnesses who could face harassment and intimidation and law enforcement.

Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preside over the joint session of Congress that officially certified Joe Biden’s electoral win.

The indictment highlights how former President Donald Trump put Vice President Mike Pence in danger on January 6, 2021, and how members of the pro-Trump mob threatened to kill Pence. 

The charging documents quote a Trump tweet from 2:24 p.m. ET, while the Capitol was under attack, in which Trump criticized his vice president for refusing to interfere with the Electoral College certification.

One minute later, the indictment noted, “the United States Secret Service was forced to evacuate the Vice President to a secure location.”

The indictment went on to say that members of the crowd at the Capitol chanted statements including: “Hang Mike Pence,” Where is Pence? Bring him out!” and “Traitor Pence” throughout the afternoon.

These events transpired after Pence refused to throw out Joe Biden’s electoral votes and overturn the election in Trump’s favor. Pence and his advisers had determined that this would have been unconstitutional, according to their past public statements. 

Former President Donald Trump during a rally at the Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania, on July 29, 2023. 

Some of the charges former President Donald Trump is facing for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election are tied to a very specific thing: “conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding” and “obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.”

The official proceeding is the counting of electoral votes in the House chamber, which by law is supposed to occur on January 6 after every presidential election. The ceremonial process is governed by the Electoral Count Act, first passed in 1887 in the wake of the contested election of 1876, which also ripped the country apart.

Fast forward to January 2021 and Trump refusing to accept his election loss.

There were also friendly lawmakers promising to object to the inclusion of electoral votes from key states he lost, claiming election fraud that didn’t happen. Trump openly called on his vice president, Mike Pence, to act unilaterally to reject those electors. He hoped friendly legislatures would overrule voters and sub in slates of fake electors his campaign had helped coordinate 

That, in a nutshell, was the plan to overturn the 2020 election.

One of the things both political parties — Republicans and Democrats — have agreed on in the years since the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol is that there should be no question that the vice president’s role is nothing but ceremonial.

In December 2022, Congress passed the first legislative response to January 6 through the Electoral Count Reform Act.

The act also raised the threshold to make it harder for lawmakers to force votes attempting to overturn a state’s certified result. Additionally, it includes provisions that would prevent efforts to pass along fake electors to Congress.

Read more about the Electoral Count Act reform.

The indictment alleges that former President Donald Trump and his co-conspirators effectively tricked individuals from seven targeted states into creating and submitting certificates asserting they were legitimate electors. 

The goal was to create a “fake controversy” at the certification proceeding in those states on December 14, 2020 and “position the Vice President – presiding on January 6 as President of the Senate – to supplant legitimate electors” with Trump’s fake ones. 

Prosecutors say Trump and co-conspirators made a strategic shift beginning in early December 2020 after they failed to convince state officials not to certify the correct results. 

According to the indictment, “The plan capitalized on ideas presented in memoranda drafted by Co-Conspirator 5,” who CNN has identified as pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro.

The House Select Committee named Chesebro as the architect of the fake electors’ plot.  

CNN first reported in January 2022 that the plan to put forward fake electors, with an eye toward January 6, was overseen by top Trump campaign officials and lawyers, including Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Supporters of President Donald Trump participate in a rally in Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Federal prosecutors detailed the “prolific lies” that former President Donald Trump made in the wake of the 2020 election in the indictment document released Tuesday.

According to the indictment, prosecutors said that Trump knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and voting machines allegedly switching votes — despite state and federal officials telling the former president the claims were wrong.

The indictment continues: “The Defendant widely disseminated his false claims of election fraud for months, despite the fact that he knew, and in many cases had been informed directly, that they were not true.”

The US acting attorney general and acting deputy attorney general told Trump that the claim he continued to make in the wake of the 2020 election — that there had been more votes than voters in Wisconsin — was false, the indictment says. Despite this, Trump repeated the false claim, including on January 6, 2021.

In the hours before the US Capitol attack, Trump also repeated the false claim that there had been more than 200,000 illegal votes in Pennsylvania, despite Justice Department officials telling him multiple times the claim was false. 

In Michigan, Trump had said multiple times there was an illegal dump of votes in Detroit in the middle of the night during the 2020 election, despite the Republican House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader at the time telling Trump he was wrong and had lost the state because he “had underperformed with certain voter populations in the state,” the indictment stated.

The indictment cites instances where Trump was informed by members of his administration, lawmakers and courts that his claims were false including; then-Vice President Mike Pence, the director of National Intelligence, senior members of the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, his own staffers, state lawmakers as well as state and federal courts. 

US Vice President Mike Pence presides over a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Some of his opponents among the 2024 Republican presidential candidates responded Tuesday to the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Here’s what they said:

In this February photo, Ian Sams, with the White House counsel's office, speaks to reporters outside of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC.

The White House declined to comment on former President Donald Trump’s indictment on Tuesday, referring questions to the Department of Justice.

The White House learned of Trump’s indictment through media reports, a White House official said, as was the case with past indictments.

President Joe Biden was at a movie theater in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, watching Oppenheimer when the grand jury handed up the indictment.

The president and first lady arrived at the cinema, Movies at Midway, around 6:30 p.m. ET following dinner at a fish restaurant nearby. Biden is on vacation this week in Rehoboth, and said previously he was looking forward to watching the 3-hour biopic.

The White House has kept a consistent posture of not commenting on investigations and prosecutions in an effort to maintain the independence of the DOJ and avoid the appearance of any political interference.

Trump supporters stand outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In a phone call the evening of the January 6 Capitol riot, then-President Donald Trump refused a request from his then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to withdraw his objections and allow for Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results, prosecutors said in the new indictment.

The allegation came in a section of the charging documents that describes how Trump allegedly exploited the violence and the chaos at the Capitol that day.

Prosecutors pointed to Trump’s alleged repeated refusals to direct the rioters to depart the Capitol. Trump did eventually tell the rioters to go home in a recorded video message released at 4:17 p.m. local time that day. 

The indictment also describes phone calls that Co-Conspirator 1 – whom appears, based on the description, to be Rudy Giuliani – made to members of Congress that evening.

In a voicemail left with an unidentified US Senator, Giuliani asked the senator to “object to every state and kind of spread this out a little bit like a filibuster,” according to a line from the voicemail quoted in the indictment.

The indictment of Donald Trump stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election marks the third time the former president has faced criminal charges. 

The latest case against Trump strikes at what’s seen as his most serious betrayal of constitutional duties, when his attempts to remain in the White House after losing the 2020 election undermined the long-held American tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power.  

The plot to overturn the 2020 election shattered presidential norms and culminated in a previously unthinkable violent assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress met to certify President Joe Biden’s victory.

For two months leading up to the attack, Trump had engaged in an unprecedented pressure campaign aimed at state election workers and lawmakers in a handful of battleground states, as well as Justice Department officials and even Trump’s own vice president to persuade them to throw out the 2020 results.  

Smith’s move to indict the former president while he is running for a second term in the White House will test whether the criminal justice system can be used to hold Trump to account for his post-election conduct, after a House impeachment of the former president failed in the Senate in February 2021. 

The indictment marks the second time in two months that Smith has brought charges against Trump. In June, Trump was charged with retention of classified documents and conspiring with a top aide to hide them from the government and his own attorneys. And in March, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on state charges of falsifying business records.   

Trump has pleaded not guilty in both of the prior cases — and is likely to do so again when he’s arraigned on the latest charges.  

The new special counsel indictment comes as Trump remains the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Trump’s March indictment marked the first time in US history that a former president had faced criminal charges. Now there are three separate, concurrent cases where the president is facing criminal allegations – which are all going to play out as Trump seeks to return to the White House in 2024 following his loss to Joe Biden in 2020.

Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Jeffrey Clark. 

The indictment against former President Donald Trump says he “enlisted co-conspirators to assist him in his criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power.”

The charging documents repeatedly reference six of these co-conspirators, but as is common practice, their identities are withheld because they have not been charged with any crimes. 

However, based on quotes in the indictment and other context, CNN can identify five of the six co-conspirators.