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.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS