TRUMP INDICTED AGAIN

UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 10:56:18 PM +00:00 · Hunter

The indictment really is just full of little details that show Trump’s contempt for both truth and law.

“On January 1, the Defendant called the Vice President and berated him because he had learned that the Vice President had opposed a lawsuit seeking a judicial decision that, at the certification, the Vice President had the authority to reject or return votes to the states under the Constitution. The Vice President responded that he thought there was no constitutional basis for such authority and that it was improper. In response, the Defendant told the Vice President, ‘You're too honest.’”

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 10:33:08 PM +00:00 · Hunter

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 10:29:09 PM +00:00 · Hunter

Co-conspirator 4 is apparently Trump administration toady Jeffrey Clark, then an assistant attorney general. The indictment recounts a January 3, 2021 meeting between Clark and a Deputy White House Counsel in which Clark suggested violence would be used to enforce a Trump attempted coup:

“The Deputy White House Counsel reiterated to Co-Conspirator 4 that there had not been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that if the Defendant remained in office nonetheless, there would be ‘riots in every major city in the United States.’ Co-Conspirator 4 responded, ‘Well, [Deputy White House Counsel], that's why there's an Insurrection Act.’”

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 10:16:51 PM +00:00 · Hunter

In a brief press statement, special counsel Jack Smith calls the Jan. 6 coup attempt "an unprecedented assault on the seat of democracy" that was "fueled by lies." He says his office will seek a "speedy trial."

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 10:11:57 PM +00:00 · Hunter

Much of the indictment consists of specific, separate incidences in which Trump and his co-conspirators knowingly and repeatedly made false public statements in an attempt to convince the public the election results were illegitimate—a litany of lies that would also be used as the pretext for assembling fake electoral slates to be presented to Congress as fraudulent “alternatives to the legitimate slates.”

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 9:56:43 PM +00:00 · Hunter

Special Counsel Jack Smith is still expected to make a statement tonight, to be live-streamed here.

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 9:53:46 PM +00:00 · Hunter

From the indictment: "After it became public on the afternoon of January 6 that the Vice President would not fraudulently alter the election results, a large and angry crowd—including many individuals whom the Defendant had deceived into believing the Vice President could and might change the election results—violently attacked the Capitol and halted the proceeding. As violence ensued, the Defendant and co-conspirators exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims."

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 9:48:43 PM +00:00 · Hunter

Then-Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows does not appear as one of the six unnamed co-conspirators … which will only add to Trump camp speculation that Meadows turned on him to provide evidence to the grand jury.

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 9:45:26 PM +00:00 · Hunter

From the indictment: "The Defendant, Donald J. Trump, did knowingly combine conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to defraud the United States."

"The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those collected, counted, and certified."

Unnamed co-conspirators 1 and 2 appear to be Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

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UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023 · 9:41:33 PM +00:00 · Hunter

The indictment cites "three criminal conspiracies," a "conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonestly, 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 by the federal government"; "a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified"; and "a conspiracy against the right to vote and have one's vote counted."

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The grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to nullify his 2020 presidential election loss has now indicted Trump on four counts, including “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States” and “Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding.”

Trump already faces multiple other indictments. Special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump in June for hiding and lying to federal investigators about the existence of classified national security documents Trump moved to his Mar-a-Lago home and club after his election loss. The 40 criminal charges in the indictment detail evidence of Trump not only ordering documents to be moved so as to hide them from his own legal team, but ordering the destruction of security camera footage of the area the boxes were moved through.

In New York, Trump has been indicted for a criminal scheme of falsifying business records to hide payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, part of Trump’s attempts to ensure Trump’s affairs with both women were kept hidden from the public during his 2016 presidential campaign.