Each indictment of Donald Trump in recent months has been, in its own way, historic. But the latest reaches a new level: by accusing him of plotting against the state, it portrays a former president so determined to stay in power that he has endangered the foundations of American democracy.
In the 45-page indictment released Tuesday, the Republican favorite for the 2024 presidential election is described as having developed a “criminal project” to prevent a peaceful transition.
For historian Jon Meacham, the indictment comes to sanction “one of the darkest episodes” in American history, during which the ex-president “placed his own ambition above all else” .
“The Constitution bent after the 2020 election. It didn’t break. But that doesn’t mean it won’t break,” he warned on MSNBC, highlighting the stakes for democracy American.
If the 77-year-old billionaire had the right, the indictment claims, to loudly contest his defeat in the 2020 election, he went illegal by “conspiring” with others – no nominated – to reverse the outcome of the election, won by Democrat Joe Biden.
And he knowingly spread lies, according to the text, “to create a national atmosphere of distrust and anger and undermine public confidence in the management of the election”.
After a months-long investigation, overseen by special prosecutor Jack Smith, Donald Trump is accused of having “pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote”; to be behind a scheme involving “false voters”; of pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to use his ceremonial role in certifying the results to alter them to his advantage.
And also for having “exploited” the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to “double our efforts and report false allegations of electoral fraud”.
These are the most serious charges to be brought against the former head of state, who has already been prosecuted in the case of the alleged negligent management of confidential White House documents and that of suspicious payments to a former porn actress.
‘Trump’s indictments are truly historic’ because no former US president has been ‘accused of spreading lies about an election and attempting to use government authority to frustrate the will of voters expressed in an election. a presidential election,” Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told AFP.
And the indictment is “extremely strong legally,” he adds, because it “clearly and comprehensively explains the laws and facts showing how Trump was aware of his lies.”
For Richard Hasen, professor of law at the University of California Los Angeles, “it is not hyperbole to say that the way in which these prosecutions are carried out” will have an impact on the direction that American democracy will take after 2024.
“This is perhaps the most significant indictment ever issued to protect American democracy and the rule of law in any American court against anyone,” he wrote on Slate. .com.
The ex-president continues to denounce a witch hunt aimed at disrupting his candidacy in 2024. And he still assures, against all evidence, that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith ruled harshly on the allegations on Tuesday.
The attack on Capitol Hill by supporters of Mr. Trump, who sought to prevent certification of the results, “was encouraged by lies. by which the nation collects, counts and certifies the results of the presidential election,” he said.
Donald Trump is due to appear before a judge Thursday in Washington to answer these charges. Jack Smith said he wanted a trial “without delay”.
02/08/2023 20:25:10 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
