Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on four counts total for his role in the January 6 insurrection. These included:
- One count of conspiracy to defraud the United States
- One count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
- One count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
- One count of conspiracy against rights
The indictment also included six other individuals as co-conspirators that have yet to be named because they were not indicted. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in the case and said that his office is still investigating the co-conspirators.
Under the First Amendment, the indictment recognized that Trump had the right to speak about the outcome of the election. However, the evidence presented led the investigation to conclude that he was aware and informed that his statements over many months about election fraud were false. They further asserted that his language ultimately led to the violence on January 6.
Reactions in Congress have mostly been divided along partisan lines, with Republicans mostly declaring the Department of Justice to have political motivations and Democrats lauding the power of the law.
One group remains outside of the norm. “Additional evidence presented since then, including by the January 6 Commission, has only reinforced that the former President played a key role in instigating the riots,” Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) tweeted. She was among one of seven Republicans that voted to impeach Trump after the insurrection.
Trump has been indicted in three separate criminal cases and is under investigation for a fourth. Despite all of this, he has denied all wrongdoing, and this indictment will not bar him from running for president again in 2024. This is because the Constitution does not require candidates to have a clean criminal record to become president.
Trump will appear in court on Thursday for his arraignment at the Federal District Court in Washington. However, because defendants in criminal cases generally have to be present during their trials, some are concluding that this may prove to be tricky combined with his planned campaign scheduling.