Former US President Donald Trump has been formally charged with trying to rig the 2020 election, and this is the third time in four months that Trump has been charged with a crime, Reuters writes.
Despite the charges and ongoing legal proceedings, Trump has started campaigning ahead of next year’s US presidential election.
The 45-page indictment, with four counts of misconduct, accuses Republican Trump of conspiring to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm then-newly elected Joe Biden, as well as obstructing a fair election.
In 2020, then-President Trump knowingly spread false claims,
pressured state and federal officials (including Vice President Mike Pence) to change the election results, and instigated a violent attack on the US Capitol in January 2021. Prosecutors said that Trump’s actions were motivated by desperate attempts to threaten American democracy and stay in power.
Trump has been ordered to appear at the Federal Court in Washington on Thursday, the 3rd of August.
The charges follow an investigation by special counsel Jack Smith into possible attempts by Trump to turn the election loss in his favor. Despite the growing legal problems, public opinion polls show that
Trump has strengthened his position as one of the strongest Republican candidates.
Weeks of raging about the “stolen election” on the 6th of January, 2021 culminated in an impassioned speech by Trump as Congress met to confirm Biden. Soon after, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to violently stop the confirmation of the new president.
In a short statement to the media, Smith blamed Trump directly for causing the violence, and said that the attack on the Capitol was an unprecedented attack on the home of American democracy.
More than 1,000 people were arrested in connection with the attack.
The indictment also alleges that Trump and others created fraudulent voter rolls in seven states,
but he lost all of them. There are many cases where Trump deliberately spread fake news.
During the attack on the Capitol, Trump refused to give a calming speech, despite repeated advice from advisers.
Representatives of the Trump campaign have said that he always follows the law and have described the charges as persecution worthy of Nazi Germany.
In late March, Trump became the first former US president to face criminal charges. Trump has declared that he is innocent.
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