Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained

A former president has been charged with crimes connected to his attempts to overturn the results of an American election.

The federal investigation into the efforts from Donald Trump and his allies to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election has yielded four criminal charges in a 45-page indictment, outlining three alleged criminal conspiracies and the obstruction of of Joe Biden’s victory and detailing a multi-state scheme built on a legacy of lies and conspiracy theories to undermine the democratic process.

A charging document under US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith follows a grand jury vote to indict Mr Trump after months of evidence and witness testimony. A tentative trial date has been set for 4 March, 2024 in Washington DC.

The indictment follows a separate, lengthy House select committee investigation into the events surrounding and leading up to the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, including a series of blockbuster public hearings laying out evidence and witness testimony describing the depth of Mr Trump’s attempts to remain in office at whatever cost.

The panel’s final 845-page report provides a detailed account of the former president’s refusal to cede power – regardless of the outcome – while privately acknowledging that he lost, as his baseless “stolen election” narrative fuelled his supporters to riot in the halls of Congress, an argument that also bolstered his second impeachment in the House of Representatives.

That report and countless investigations into the events surrounding January 6 have painted the attack on the Capitol as part of a much-larger effort to preserve a fragile American democracy in a volatile battle to determine the truth and who wields it.

In December, lawmakers on the House committee unanimously voted to recommend charges against the former president, claiming that there is enough evidence to prosecute him for at least four crimes – including aiding or providing comfort to an insurrection aimed at toppling the United States government.

The panel also referred Mr Trump to the Justice Department for the obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, and conspiracy to make a false statement to the federal government.

John Eastman, the attorney who argued that Mr Pence could reject election results, and Kenneth Chesebro, who helped develop the fake elector scheme, were also implicated in the committee’s report, along with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney Rudy Giuliani, and former assistant US attorney general Jeffrey Clark.

It was a mostly symbolic vote, marking the culmination of the committee’s months-long investigation, but it sent a powerful signal from a bipartisan group of lawmakers bolstered by mountains of evidence that a former president should be held accountable for his alleged crimes against the government.

The Justice Department’s investigation builds on the years of work from federal prosecutors to investigate more than 1,000 people in connection with the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, fuelled by the former president’s ongoing false claims that the election was rigged against him.

A resulting indictment lists six unnamed co-conspirators who are likely to include Trump-connected attorneys and former administration officials and advisers, including former attorneys Mr Giuliani and Mr Eastman, Sidney Powell, Mr Clark and Mr Cheseboro.

Prosecutors have also talked to a number of chief aides and officials in Mr Trump’s circle, including former Vice President Mike Pence, Mr Meadows, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, his former deputy Pat Philbin, and former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, among several others.

They also have spoken with Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, who was on the other end of a call with Mr Trump demanding that the state’s top elections official “find 11,780 votes” – enough for him to overturn Mr Biden’s victory in the state.

That call, which was taped, also is at the center of a separate investigation from Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis into election interference in the state.

Arizona – ground zero for an election denialism movement that gave rise to leading GOP candidates for the top three statewide offices, including failed candidate for governor Kari Lake – was a focal point for the Trump campaign and his allies, who filed several lawsuits against the state and some counties in an attempt to overturn the lawful results. Mr Biden won the state by roughly 10,000 votes.

Federal prosecutors have talked to former Arizona governor Doug Ducey, who silenced a call from Mr Trump while Mr Ducey was in the middle of certifying his state’s election results – a process that was being live-streamed and carried across news outlets.

Mr Smith’s office also subpoenaed the Office of the Arizona Secretary of State and has met with top elections officials in Wisconsin, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors also have interviewed Michigan secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, whose office provided a tranche of documents that included communications between the state’s election officials and Mr Trump’s former lawyers and members of his campaign as the former president’s allies targeted the critical battleground state.

Xural.com