Former US president Donald Trump on Tuesday was indicted on felony charges for allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The four-count indictment says that Trump sought to exploit protests at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by pointing to it as a reason to further delay the counting of votes.
The indictment has charges of conspiring to defraud the US, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding and violating a civil rights statute that makes it a crime to conspire to violate rights that are guaranteed by the US constitution — in this case, the right to vote.
Photo: AFP
“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith said. “It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government: The nation’s process of collecting counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
The Trump campaign for next year’s presidential election called the charges “fake” and asked why it took two-and-a-half years to bring them.
Trump was the only person charged in Tuesday’s indictment, but prosecutors obliquely referenced a half-dozen co-conspirators, including lawyers inside and outside of government who they said had worked with Trump to undo the election results.
They also advanced plans to enlist electors in battleground states to claim that Trump had actually won them.
Trump is due in court today, the first step in a legal process that is to play out in a courthouse in Washington.
A conviction in this case, or any other, would not prevent Trump from pursuing the White House or serving as president, although Trump as president could theoretically appoint an attorney-general to dismiss the charges or potentially try to pardon himself.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump lawyer who pursued post-election legal challenges, spoke voluntarily to prosecutors.
Giuliani was not named in the indictment, but appears to match the description of one of the co-conspirators.
A spokesman for Giuliani said that Trump had a “good-faith basis” for the actions he took.
Donald Trump’s attorney John Lauro called the indictment “an attack on free speech and political advocacy.”
Lauro said in an interview on CNN that it is “an effort to not only criminalize, but also to censor free speech.”
Trump was being told by people after the 2020 presidential election “that there were problems” with it and “he also saw in real time that the rules were changing without the state legislatures weighing in,” Lauro added.
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
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