Getty President Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump has been indicted for a third time, and the full, new indictment mentions six co-conspirators, although it gives descriptions, but no names for them, sparking a parlor game on social media. However, five of the six names have been confirmed.
In a statement posted to Truth Social, Trump said: “This is nothing more than the latest corrupt charge 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.”
CNN reported on air that Jeffrey Clark, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer, is one of the six co-conspirators, and NBC News reported that former Trump attorney John Eastman is another. The indictment accuses Trump and “co-conspirators” of organizing “fraudulent slates of electors in seven targeted states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin).”
Other alleged “co-conspirators” can be identified by matching the indictment’s details to previous reporting. For example, previous reporting indicates that three of the accused co-conspirators are former Trump attorney and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell, and attorney Kenneth Chesebro.
The accused co-conspirators have not been criminally charged.
Trump and his accused “co-conspirators” attempted “to use the power and authority of the Justice Department to conduct sham election crime investigations and to send a letter to the targeted states that falsely claimed that the Justice Department had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the election outcome,” the indictment says.
BREAKING: Special counsel Jack Smith says indictment against former Pres. Trump is “consistent with that commitment” to ensure accountability for those criminally responsible for January 6. t.co/FeyPq1SH9r
This time, the former president is accused of charges relating to the 2020 election in an indictment filed by prosecutor Jack Smith, United States Department of Justice special counsel.
You can read the full new Trump indictment here.
Here’s what you need to know:
The New Indictment Against Donald Trump Lists Attorneys & a Political Consultant as ‘Co-Conspirators’
YouTubeTrump
The accused “co-conspirators” were enlisted by Trump to “assist him in his criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power,” the indictment says. It makes the following accusations:
1. Co-Conspirator 1: “An attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” Previous reporting identifies this person as Giuliani.
2. Co-Conspirator 2: “An attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.” NBC News reported that this person is John Eastmen.
3. Co-Conspirator 3: “An attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy.’ Nonetheless, the defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator 3’s disinformation.” This person is identified as attorney Sidney Powell per previous reporting.
4. Co-Conspirator 4: “A Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.” (This is the accused “co-conspirator” CNN says is Clark.)
5. Co-Conspirator 5: “An attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” This person is identified in previous reporting as attorney Kenneth Chesebro.
6. Co-Conspirator 6: “A political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” This person has not yet been identified.
Trump and the accused “co-conspirators” attempted to “enlist the Vice President to use his ceremonial role at the January 6 certification proceeding to fraudulently alter the election results,” the indictment says. The indictment accuses Trump “and co-conspirators” of exploiting the January 6 “disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud.”
Donald Trump Was Accused of 4 Charges in the New Indictment, Including ‘Conspiracy to Defraud the United States’
GettyDonald Trump.
According to the indictment, Trump has been charged with four counts: 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.
The indictment states that Trump “lost the 2020 presidential election,” but says, “despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false.”
The indictment says Trump “had a right, like every American to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative raud during the election and that he had won. He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means, such as by seeking recounts or audits of the popular vote in states or filing lawsuits challenging ballots and procedures.”
However, according to the indictment, “shortly after election day, the defendant also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”
The indictment says the former president committed three criminal conspiracies, including a conspiracy to obstruct and impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified; a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted, and a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using “dishonesty, fraud and deceit” to impair, obstruct and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted and certified.
“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 indictment says.
The indictment claims that Trump knew the claims were false. As evidence for this, the indictment says Vice President Mike Pence, White House attorneys, state legislatures and officials, and senior leaders of the Justice Department told Trump on multiple occasions that there was not evidence to support the accusations of fraud.
Specifically, the indictment says Trump “insinuated that more than 10,000 dead voters had voted in Georgia” when he was told four days earlier by Georgia’s Secretary of States “that this was false.”
He asserted that there had been 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania, even though his acting attorney general told him it was false, the indictment says.
He said there was a suspicious vote dump in Detroit, even though his Attorney General explained to him that this was false, the indictment says.
The indictment also lists claims in Nevada and Arizona.
It also says that Trump “asserted that voting machines in various contested states had switched votes from the defendant to Biden” even though he was told this was false.
READ NEXT: Jack Smith’s Wife, Katy Chevigny