(Trump) is due to go on trial in New York in March next year over allegations he covered up ‘hush money’ payments to a porn star
Washington, DC—Donald Trump’s historic indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election paints a picture of a former president so determined to hang on to power that he put the very foundations of American democracy at risk.
Trump’s legal troubles have thrust the United States into uncharted territory, but the latest charges from special counsel Jack Smith are in a different league.
While two previous indictments focused on hush money payments to a porn star and hiding secret government documents, this one lays out in compelling detail a complex plot with half a dozen conspirators to effectively overthrow an elected government.
Adding even more weight to the case is the fact that the 77-year-old real estate tycoon is seeking to recapture the White House and holds a commanding lead in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“The indictments of Trump are truly historic in the sense that no US president or former president before Trump has been indicted, much less charged with spreading lies regarding an election,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.
Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, singled out the unique nature of the legal case against a former commander-in-chief in stark terms.
“It is hard to overstate the stakes riding on this indictment and prosecution,” Hasen wrote on Slate.com. “It is perhaps the most important indictment ever handed down to safeguard American democracy and the rule of law in any US court against anyone.
“It’s not hyperbole to say that the conduct of this prosecution will greatly influence whether the US remains a thriving democracy after 2024.”
Smith, the special counsel, linked Trump’s actions following his November 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden directly to the attack two months later on the US Capitol, which he called an “unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.”
“It was fueled by lies,” Smith said. “Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
‘Darkest hours’
Historian Jon Meacham, whose biography of former president Andrew Jackson won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize, said the charges against the twice-impeached Trump stem from what he called one of the “darkest hours” in American history.
“What we haven’t had before is a person so powerful that they can bend the Constitution to the point of breaking,” Meacham said on MSNBC. “(Trump) put fundamentally his own appetite, his own ambition, ahead of everything else.”
The 45-page indictment brought by Smith charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy to deprive Americans of a civil right — their votes.
The “criminal scheme,” as Smith described it, meticulously outlines the various efforts taken by Trump and his unnamed co-conspirators to overturn the election results using accusations that they knew were untrue.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud,” the indictment says. “Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power.”
The plot allegedly included repeated attempts to pressure vice president Mike Pence into throwing out Electoral College votes at the January 6 joint session of Congress.
When Pence told Trump during a January 1 meeting he had no constitutional authority to do so, the president reportedly responded by saying “You’re too honest.”
Trump and his co-conspirators are also accused of submitting fraudulent slates of electors to Congress in a bid to reverse the results in seven key states won by Biden.
Trump allegedly sought to enlist senior Justice Department officials in his plot, telling them at one point to “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”
The efforts culminated in a fiery speech by the president near the White House on January 6 and the subsequent attack on the US Capitol by his supporters, who were seeking to block the certification of Biden’s victory.
Trump, who has denounced the indictment as politically motivated, is expected to make his first court appearance to answer the charges before a US District Court Judge in Washington on Thursday.
Campaign coffers emptied
Meanwhile, some say Trump has been burning through millions of dollars as he faces an onslaught of legal bills from the investigations threatening his presidential election bid — with some sources of funding drying up fast.
Trump is hardly strapped for cash, as his joint fundraising committee brought in $54 million during the first half of 2023 — more than any of his Republican primary rivals in next year’s election.
But critics say new financial filings demonstrate how his spiraling legal woes are making a significant dent in a war chest that could be going to TV spots, rallies and other campaign events as he bids for a second term.
The Save America political action committee Trump founded disclosed this week that it was down to its last $4 million by the end of June— loose change in campaign finance terms—after spending more than $20 million on legal fees.
Trump has a wide berth to spend vast sums on lawyers, and there is no question of criminal wrongdoing in doing so, but Washington watchers have questioned whether campaign donors should be expected to pick up such tabs.
“If you’re sending Trump money, it’s almost exclusively going to his personal legal fees,” said attorney and conservative political writer A.G. Hamilton.
“Which also means they are going to have practically nothing left over for spending on turnout efforts to compete with Democrats in key states.”
Trump’s latest indictment over his push to overturn the 2020 election will further strain resources, with legal bills now his PAC’s largest expense as the billionaire faces indictments in Florida, New York and Washington.
78 felony counts
The Republican National Committee covered most of Trump’s legal bills until November last year but stopped when he launched his 2024 election bid.
His various political operations have around $32 million cash in the bank heading towards January’s Iowa caucus—the first nominating contest in the primary season.
Most of the money Trump raises goes directly to his presidential campaign, with just 10 percent going to Save America, which has been covering legal expenses for almost any figure in Trump’s orbit ensnared in the investigations. AFP
The PAC, which raises most of its money from small-dollar donations, informed the Federal Election Commission it had given $21.6 million to law firms defending Trump and his allies this year — $5 million more than its total legal costs in 2021 and 2022 combined.
Estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.5 billion, the former reality TV star enters primary season charged with 78 felonies in three separate criminal probes.
He is due to go on trial in New York in March next year over allegations he covered up “hush money” payments to a porn star, and is scheduled to be tried two months later over his alleged mishandling of national security secrets.
He is in court on Friday (Manila time) for a preliminary hearing over his alleged election interference and is expected to soon be charged by state prosecutors over similar allegations in a separate case focused on the southern state of Georgia. AFP