Originally published August 1, 2023 3:01 pm PDT
On Tuesday, the Justice Department (DOJ) leveled charges against Donald Trump, the former president, alleging that he attempted to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential elections.
The charges lodged against Trump include witness tampering and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.
Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to decry the DOJ’s move as “nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by substantial margins.”
The former president wondered why the agency waited “two and a half years to bring these fake charges, right in the middle of President Trump’s winning campaign for 2024.”
“Why was it announced the day after the big Crooked Joe Biden scandal broke out from the Halls of Congress?” he asked.
“The answer is, election interference! The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” he said. “President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution, with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys.”
“These un-American witch hunts will fail and President Trump will be re-elected to the White House so he can save our country from the abuse, incompetence, and corruption that is running through the veins of our country at levels never seen before,” he went on to say.
“Three years ago we had strong borders, energy independence, no inflation, and a great economy.
Today, we are a nation in decline. President Trump will not be deterred by disgraceful and unprecedented political targeting!”
The indictment is the latest in a series of legal proceedings against Trump, who has signaled his intention to run for the presidency in 2024.
The charges are the outcome of an extensive federal investigation into the former president and his associates.
The federal prosecution alleges that Trump was bent on retaining his position of power through a scheme that sought to undermine a fundamental function of the U.S. federal government—the execution of the process for “collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District is expected to preside over the case on Thursday.
The charges were unveiled as Trump emerged as the frontrunner among Republicans eager to secure their party’s nomination for the presidential election.
Trump and his followers are likely to label the prosecution as yet another politically driven indictment.
In addition to the federal charges, Trump faces legal battles on multiple fronts.
In New York, he stands accused of falsifying business records relating to a covert payment to a pornographic film actress prior to the 2016 elections. The trial is slated to commence in March.
The Justice Department has also lodged over thirty felony charges against Trump in Florida. These charges accuse him of unlawfully retaining classified documents post his departure from the White House and of deliberately concealing them from the government. The trial for these charges is scheduled for late May.
The focal point of the latest federal indictment against Trump is his activities in Washington, and the trial will be conducted in the same city, in a courthouse located midway between the Capitol and the White House.
A date for the trial is yet to be determined.
Furthermore, Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are under investigation, with the district attorney of Fulton County poised to decide on possible indictment in August.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith spearheaded the investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to nullify the 2020 election results.
High-ranking officials from the Trump administration, including Mike Pence and several White House lawyers, have given evidence before a Washington grand jury as part of the investigation.
While grappling with a slew of legal challenges, Trump has sought to leverage the situation to his advantage politically.
He has publicly declared that the cases are a manifestation of the Democratic prosecutors’ attempt to undermine his 2024 election campaign, saying they represent “just another vicious act of Election Interference on behalf of the Deep State to try and stop the Silent Majority from having a voice in your own country.”
Notably, his campaign has successfully raised millions from his supporters as a direct response to the indictments.
Following the disclosure of his implication in the Justice Department’s Jan 6 investigation, a committee in support of Trump’s candidacy promptly sought contributions.
The tumultuous event of January 6th at the Capitol has led to more than 1,000 people being indicted so far.
