Donald Trump is threatened with another indictment. It could be the most momentous given his ambitions to return to the White House in 2025. The former US President said he was notified on Sunday that he was the target of investigations into the storming of the US House of Representatives on January 6, 2021.
In the weeks after the 2020 election, Trump had stirred up sentiment with unsubstantiated claims that voter fraud had stolen his victory. At the beginning of January there was an unprecedented attack on the seat of the US Congress, with which Trump supporters tried to prevent the formal confirmation of Joe Biden’s election victory and thus the change of power in Washington.
A look at the most important questions and answers.
That is unclear. Special Counsel Jack Smith has been reviewing for months whether there is enough evidence to institute criminal proceedings against Trump in this case. The ex-president himself said that he was asked in a letter on Sunday to report to the jury within four days, which will ultimately decide on an indictment. However, he has no plans to comply with this request, the media reported, citing Trump’s lawyers.
Such a letter means that the investigator has gathered enough evidence to connect the recipient to a crime. However, the letter does not mean that there will actually be an indictment in the end. It is also unclear whether the grand jury will immediately decide on an indictment after the four days that Trump is said to have been granted. Trump himself made it clear that he expected to be arrested and charged.
The investigators have not yet released any official information on this. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, citing people familiar with the letter, report that it lists various possible criminal offenses. Accordingly, Trump could be charged with conspiracy against the US government and the willful deprivation of rights protected by the constitution. The Wall Street Journal also cites witness tampering as a possible charge. The rare offense of rioting is not included in the reports.
According to media reports, witnesses such as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Vice President Mike Pence were interviewed as part of the investigation in a federal court in Washington. It can be assumed that, if indicted, Trump would also have to appear there for the reading of the indictment.
The legal situation would not prevent Trump from running as a convicted criminal in the 2024 presidential election, as legal experts repeatedly emphasize. With a view to the exclusion from political offices, the indictment could be the most serious so far. At least if Trump is also charged and convicted of the rare crime of rioting. According to the constitution, anyone involved in an uprising against the government is barred from public office. The criminal offense under US law is instigating or participating in insurrection against the authority of the state or the law.
A congressional committee of inquiry had accused Trump of several crimes in connection with the storming of the Capitol – including inciting the crowd to riot. The committee had recommended that the Justice Department prosecute, but this is not legally binding.
Proceedings against Trump could take a long time. The secret documents affair already makes this clear to begin with. Trump’s lawyers are playing for time, also because of the presidential election. They cite this as a reason why a trial should not take place beforehand because their client, as the most promising contender for the Republican nomination, would be too involved in the election campaign.
The Republican then faces a year in prison. How far-reaching the consequences would be for his political future also depends on the timing of a possible conviction. Theoretically, there is a possibility that he will hold the office of US President again if he is convicted. However, there has never been a president behind bars in US history – there should at least be practical hurdles here.
If convicted and wins the 2024 election, Trump could pardon himself after taking office in 2025. If the lawsuits against him are still pending, he could, as president, have the charges against him dropped.
At the beginning of April, Trump was accused of making hush money payments to a porn star in New York, to a worldwide sensation – as the first ex-president in US history. He pleaded “not guilty”. The trial in the case is scheduled to begin in March 2024 in New York. Another indictment followed in June because Trump kept top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after his term in office and failed to return them when requested. Here, too, Trump pleaded “not guilty”. It was the Republican’s first federal indictment. The start of the process is still open here. In the state of Georgia, the public prosecutor’s office is also investigating Trump for possible election manipulation – this is also about the 2020 election.
So an indictment against Trump for his role in the storming of the Capitol would be the second federal charge for the Republican and the third criminal charge. There are also various civil law procedures.
