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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest – Special Federal Indictment Edition

By August 2, 2023No Comments

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Former President Trump indicted for alleged efforts to overturn 2020 Election

  • New York Times: Trump ‘Spread Lies’ in Effort to Cling to Power, Indictment Says: Former President Donald J. Trump was indicted on Tuesday in connection with his widespread efforts to overturn the 2020 election following a sprawling federal investigation into his attempts to cling to power after losing the presidency to Joseph R. Biden Jr. The indictment was filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Federal District Court in Washington. It accuses Mr. Trump of three conspiracies: one to defraud the United States, a second to obstruct an official government proceeding and a third to deprive people of civil rights provided by federal law or the Constitution. “Each of these conspiracies — which built on the widespread mistrust the defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud — targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” the indictment said.
  • Washington Post: Trump indictment references Pence or vice presidency more than 100 times: The 45-page indictment accusing former president Donald Trump of criminal schemes in his effort to overturn the 2020 election results references Mike Pence or the office of the vice presidency more than 100 times, reflecting Pence’s role as a central figure in the charging document. Pence took “contemporaneous notes” about Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 45th president’s electoral defeat in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, according to the indictment, which includes some new specific allegations about a defining chapter of Pence’s career and a key point of contention in his long-shot 2024 presidential campaign against his former boss. Pence rejected Trump’s pressure to try to reverse the election results in his role certifying the outcome, leading to a fracture that has persisted to this day.
  • New York Times: Trump Jan. 6 Indictment Relies Heavily on House Panel’s Work: In taking the monumental step of charging a former president with attempting to steal an American election, Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel, relied on an extraordinary narrative, but one the country knew well. For a year and a half, the special House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol introduced Americans to a sprawling cast of characters and laid out in painstaking detail the many ways in which former President Donald J. Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. In doing so, it provided a road map of sorts for the 45-page indictment Mr. Smith released on Tuesday. “In a lot of ways, the committee’s work provided this path,” said Soumya Dayananda, who served as a senior investigator for the House Jan. 6 panel. “The committee served as educating the country about what the former president did, and this is finally accountability. The congressional committee wasn’t going to be able to bring accountability; that was in the hands of the Department of Justice.”
  • Washington Post: How Trump allegedly tried to leverage the Capitol riot: By 1 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump and those focused on helping him retain power had to switch to what might be called Plan B. For days before Congress was set to convene and count submitted electoral votes, formalizing Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Trump had been pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to simply reject slates of electors from states Trump had lost narrowly. According to the indictment obtained by special counsel Jack Smith on Monday, the pressure campaign was already underway by the holidays. When Pence called the president to wish him a merry Christmas, Trump allegedly began hectoring him about rejecting electors. So it went. Trump called Pence on Jan. 1, the indictment alleges, pointing to notes taken contemporaneously by Pence. When Pence rejected the plan once again, Trump allegedly said he was “too honest.” As the date neared, the encounters allegedly accelerated, with Trump and such allies as his attorney John Eastman trying to cajole Pence into enacting the scheme. On the evening of Jan. 5, Trump allegedly had his campaign put out a statement suggesting that Pence and he were “in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.”
  • New York Times: The indictment says Trump had six co-conspirators in his efforts to retain power: The indictment of former President Donald J. Trump mentions — but does not identify by name — six co-conspirators who prosecutors say worked with him in seeking to overturn the 2020 election. It is not clear why the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, decided to seek only Mr. Trump’s indictment for now, though it is possible that some of the co-conspirators could still face charges in the weeks ahead. Here is how the indictment describes those conspirators. The identities of the co-conspirators could not immediately be determined, but the descriptions of them appear to match up with a number of people who were central to the investigation into election tampering conducted by prosecutors working for Mr. Smith.
  • Washington Post: Trump is charged under civil rights law used to prosecute KKK violence: A carload of White men who attacked an interracial couple with rocks and bricks. A member of the Ku Klux Klan who built a cross, wrapped it in sheets soaked in gas and oil and instructed two others to set it ablaze in front of the home of a family of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. A social media influencer who spread misinformation aimed at preventing people from voting. And now, a former president of the United States. When Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday and accused of trying to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election, he found himself in the unenviable company of defendants charged under a criminal statute dating to the Reconstruction era.
  • ABC News: Timeline: Special counsel’s probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 election: Former acting U.S. attorney Jack Smith was appointed in November to oversee the investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Here is how the special counsel probe has unfolded.
  • CNN: READ: Trump indictment in 2020 election and Jan. 6 probe: A federal grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Read the indictment here.
  • BBC: What are the four counts in Trump indictment for 2020 election interference?: The 45-page indictment contained four charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing and said that the charges – the third separate criminal indictment he is facing – are part of “un-American witch hunts” against him. Below, we break down what these charges relating to the inquiry into election interference mean.

Lawmakers react along partisan lines to Trump’s third indictment as Trump claims he is facing “fake charges”

  • Politico: Lawmakers hew to party lines in reaction to latest Trump indictment: Lawmakers on Tuesday leapt to comment on the news that former President Donald Trump had received his third indictment — this time on four federal charges relating to his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.The majority of responses were divided along party lines, with Democrats using the indictment as an opportunity to slam the former president, who is currently the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Republicans, on the other hand, argued that the news was evidence of a partisan justice system, suggesting that the indictment was an attempt to unfairly defame Trump and distract from the ongoing legal troubles of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. 
  • Forbes: Trump Indicted: GOP Slams Justice Department In Baseless Attacks Following Jan. 6 Charges: Republican lawmakers slammed the Department of Justice on Tuesday after former President Donald Trump was indicted for the third time this year, over criminal charges stemming from his alleged efforts to remain in office following his loss in the 2020 presidential election. GOP firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) labeled Smith a “terrible attorney,” claiming he is “abusing his power” as special counsel and calling for an end to the “witch hunts” against the former president.
  • New Republic: Trump Whines About Being in Nazi Germany After Third Indictment: Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday for a record third time, and you could say he seems to be taking it very well. If by “well,” you mean “comparing being held accountable to the Holocaust.” Trump was charged for his role in the January 6 insurrection and other attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He faces four counts that include conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to corruptly obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the right to vote.
  • Washington Post: Trump has been indicted before. Historians say this time is different: Historians and legal scholars say the new indictment, brought by federal special prosecutor Jack Smith, is fundamentally more consequential than the earlier ones, which related to hush money paid to an adult-film actress and the mishandling of classified documents. While those are serious allegations, Tuesday’s indictment accuses a former president of the United States with attempting to subvert the democracy upon which the nation rests. “This gets right to the question of how elections work, how power is transferred peacefully,” said Jon Grinspan, a curator of political history at the National Museum of American History. “This is really a question about the functioning of American democracy.”

In The States

MICHIGAN: Trump-backed candidate for Michigan AG and ex-GOP lawmaker face state charges over alleged voting machine plot after 2020 election

  • Washington Post: Michigan Republicans charged in connection with 2020 voting machine tampering: A Michigan prosecutor charged a former state lawmaker and a losing candidate for state attorney general Tuesday as part of an investigation into the improper acquisition of voting machines. Special prosecutor D.J. Hilson since last year has been looking into efforts by a group of conservatives to persuade election clerks to give them voting machines as they attempted to prove the 2020 presidential election had been wrongly called for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. The group never turned up any proof, and courts in dozens of cases across the country ruled that the election was properly decided. Former attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno (R) was charged with improper possession of a voting machine, conspiracy to unlawfully possess a voting machine, conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to a computer system and willfully damaging a voting machine, according to Hilson. Former state representative Daire Rendon (R) was charged with conspiracy to unlawfully possess a voting machine and using false pretenses with the intent to defraud, he said. Both were arraigned Tuesday and released.
  • New York Times: Trump Meddler in Michigan, Matthew DePerno, Is Charged in Election Breach: Matthew DePerno, a key orchestrator of efforts to help former President Donald J. Trump try to overturn the 2020 election in Michigan and an unsuccessful candidate for state attorney general last year, was arraigned on four felony charges on Tuesday, according to documents released by D.J. Hilson, the special prosecutor handling the investigation. The charges against Mr. DePerno, which include undue possession of a voting machine and a conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to a computer or computer system, come after a nearly yearlong investigation in one of the battleground states that cemented the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as president. Former State Representative Daire Rendon was also charged with two crimes, including a conspiracy to illegally obtain a voting machine and false pretenses. Both Mr. DePerno and Ms. Rendon were arraigned remotely on Tuesday before Chief Judge Jeffery Matis, according to Richard Lynch, the court administrator for Oakland County’s Sixth Circuit, and remained free on bond.

TEXAS: As electoral disputes mount, one Harris County court case takes center stage

  • Associated Press: A test case challenging election results in Texas’ biggest county follows a post-Trump playbook: Harris County, Texas, beset by Republicans looking to influence the Democratic stronghold’s elections, is hosting this week the first trial seeking to overturn local contest results from last November. Similar court challenges have become more common around the country following baseless conspiracy theories spread by former President Donald Trump and his supporters alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen by President Joe Biden’s backers. Election denialism is likely to make its way into the Houston, Texas, trial, which is expected to last two weeks and be decided by David Peeples, a visiting judge from San Antonio. Elections in the nation’s third-most populous county — and one with large numbers of Hispanic and Black voters — have been scrutinized for several years now. Some polling locations on Nov. 8 opened late or had long lines due to problems with voting machines. During the March 2022 primary, there was a shortage of poll workers and about 10,000 mail ballots weren’t counted the day of the election.

  • Houston Chronicle: Timeline: Key dates for Harris County elections trial aimed at overturning November results: The trial begins this week in the first of 21 lawsuits aimed at overturning Harris County’s November elections. Here are the key dates leading up to the courtroom showdown. Last summer, the five-member Harris County Elections Commission unanimously picked Tatum, the former head of Washington, D.C.’s board of elections, to serve as the new Elections Administrator. Tatum stepped in after the resignation of Isabel Longoria, the first person to hold the position, in the wake of the March primaries. Longoria and her office came under fire for a slow vote count and the failure to include about 10,000 ballots in its Election Night tally. Those ballots were included in the final count. Harris County Republicans called for Longoria’s termination, even after she submitted her resignation. Tatum started the job less than two months before early voting began in the November election.

What Experts Are Saying

VIDEO: Norm Eisen, former House Judiciary Special Counsel in Trump’s first impeachment trial: “Jack Smith told a simple story in the 1/6 indictment:

  1. Trump knew he lost but employed various schemes to cling to power
  2. Then, he pressured Pence to obstruct Congress on 1/6
  3. When all else failed, he exploited the violence of 1/6

I broke it all down @CNNSitRoom @CNN” Tweet

Patrick Gaspard, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress: “Justice is staring Donald Trump directly in the eyes. He must be held accountable for one of the darkest chapters in our history – a conspiracy to subvert a democratic election and the will of the people. Prosecutors must move swiftly toward a trial without political distractions” Tweet 

Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “Every American should read the indictment charging Donald Trump with conspiring to steal the election. Count 4, Conspiring To Deprive the Right to Vote, is especially important. We are all the victims.” Tweet 

VIDEO: Timothy J. Heaphy, former United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia: “The facts here are what really drives this… Facts make criminal cases. Facts make history… It’s all going to come down to what happened and what happened has been pretty clear for a long time. It is pretty revolutionary” MSNBC Deadline White House Tweet

George Conway, conservative attorney and legal analyst: “All the evidence comes from Republicans. If you go through this indictment and you annotate the paragraphs to figure out who are the witnesses the [special counsel] would use to prove particular points, they’re all Republicans. Those are the people who were having the discussions, telling [Trump], ‘You lost.’” CNN via Letters from an American Substack  

Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “The penalties are serious. 18 USC § 371 carries a five-year maximum. The two charges under 18 USC § 1512 each have a 20-year maximum penalty. And the maximum penalty for violating 18 USC § 241 is 10 years. While the sentencing guidelines often set a lower range the judge is advised to sentence within, here, and especially if Trump has picked up one or more prior convictions before he’s sentenced, there is serious time associated with conviction on any one of these charges.” Civil Discourse

Neal Katyal, former US Acting Solicitor General: “This will be the most significant trial in our lifetimes. There will be so much disinformation and spinning. And so much that will go to the heart of who we are as a people. All Americans should be able to see the trial for themselves. It absolutely must be televised. I very much hope the Chief Justice authorizes it.” Tweet

Preet Bharara, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York: “Sad that 5 of the 6 alleged Co-conspirators are lawyers (and therefore officers of the court)” Tweet 

Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and a former federal corruption prosecutor: “The stakes are crystal clear in this current indictment. The charges filed by special counsel Jack Smith make clear that Trump is not being charged with minor election or paperwork offenses, but rather with a scheme to install himself as president in violation of the law and the votes of the American people and to overthrow our democracy — a scheme that resulted in at least seven deaths and countless injuries. There could be no more clearly justifiable indictment of a former president.” Salon Op-Ed: Trump finally indicted for Jan. 6 plot: Here’s why this is the big one

Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor: “Unveiled on Tuesday, the Washington, D.C. grand jury’s indictment of Donald Trump for his role in attempting to overturn the election is a model in the art of prosecution. We know that from the selection of charges and from the grand jury’s sweeping investigation whose detail the indictment reflects. The new indictment is at once sure-footed, streamlined and prudently aggressive. It takes on charges that must be brought and whose evidence overlaps in a careful design to ensure an efficient trial that can be completed before the November election.” Slate Op-Ed: Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 Trump Indictment Is a Prosecutorial Masterstroke

Heather Cox Richardson, American historian at Boston College: “The prosecution of former president Trump for trying to destroy those institutions and principles, including our right to consent to the government under which we live—a right the Founders articulated in the Declaration of Independence—should deter others from trying to do the same. Moreover, it will defend the rights of the victims—those who gave their lives as well as all of us whose votes were attacked—by establishing the truth in place of lies. That realistic view should enable us to recommit to the principles on which we want our nation to rest.” Letters from an American 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

Mediaite: Trump Relentlessly Attacks Fox News, Bret Baier and DeSantis in Late Night Truth Social Bender

Trump Investigations 

CBS: Fulton County D.A. receives racist threats as charging decision against Trump looms

New York Times: Atlanta Sheriff Rules Out Special Treatment if Trump Is Indicted There

January 6 And The 2020 Election

KOMO News: How Trump’s indictment could impact other Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection cases

Opinion

Washington Post: Trump indicted for Jan. 6. At last.

New York Times: The Trial America Needs

Washington Post: Prosecuting Trump is perilous. Ignoring his conduct would be worse

In the States

Sacramento Bee: California county under investigation for possibly violating state voting rights laws

Valdosta Today: General Assembly called to support election integrity bills

Carolina Journal: State elections board, DAs push back against federal felon voting lawsuit