By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON (AA) - Former US President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in the Justice Department's investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The 45-page indictment charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. Six others are listed as co-conspirators, but are not named.
The indictment marks the third criminal case against Trump since he left office following another federal case in the state of Florida related to his alleged unlawful retention of classified government documents and efforts to thwart investigators, and another case in New York related to hush money payments to an adult film star.
But the lastest indictment marks the most significant case against the ex-president to date. Special counsel Jack Smith had been leading a long-standing investigation into Trump and his political allies, and efforts to prevent President Joe Biden from assuming power after he won the November 2020 polls by 7 million votes.
"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," said the indictment.
"These claims were false and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway--to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election," it added.