Alan Feuer and
Former President Donald J. Trump was indicted on Tuesday in connection with his far-reaching efforts to overturn the 2020 election, part of a continuing federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s attempts to cling to power after losing the presidency to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The indictment was filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Federal District Court in Washington. It accuses Mr. Trump of three conspiracies: one to defraud the United States, a second to obstruct an official government proceeding and a third to deprive people of civil rights provided by federal law or the Constitution. Mr. Trump is also charged with a fourth count of obstructing an official proceeding.
“Each of these conspiracies — which built on the widespread mistrust the defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud — targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” the indictment said.
The charges signify an extraordinary moment in United States history: a former president, in the midst of a campaign to return to the White House, being charged over attempts to use the levers of government power to subvert democracy and remain in office against the will of voters.
The indictment came more than two and a half years after a pro-Trump mob — egged on by incendiary speeches by Mr. Trump and his allies — stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in the worst attack on the seat of Congress since the War of 1812.
It contains snippets of new information, such as the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, imploring Mr. Trump to pull back objections to President Biden’s victory being certified by Congress hours after the rioters entered the building, and Mr. Trump refusing.
A federal grand jury returned the indictment a little more than eight months after Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed Mr. Smith, a career federal prosecutor, to oversee both the election tampering and classified documents inquiries into Mr. Trump. It came just over a year after a House select committee held high-profile hearings on the Jan. 6 attack and what led to it that laid out extensive evidence of Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse the election results.
Mr. Garland moved to name Mr. Smith as special counsel just days after Mr. Trump declared that he was running for president again.
In a statement, Mr. Trump denounced the new charges.
“Why did they wait two and a half years to bring these fake charges, right in the middle of President Trump’s winning campaign for 2024?” he said, calling it “election interference” and comparing the Biden administration to Nazi Germany.
Mr. Trump now faces two separate federal indictments. In June, Mr. Smith brought charges in Florida accusing Mr. Trump — the current front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — of illegally holding on to a highly sensitive trove of national defense documents and then obstructing the government’s attempts to get them back. He is scheduled to go on trial in that case in May.
The scheme charged by Mr. Smith on Tuesday in the election case played out largely in the two months between Election Day in 2020 and the attack on the Capitol. During that period, Mr. Trump took part in a range of efforts to retain power despite having lost the presidential race to Mr. Biden.
In addition to federal charges in the election and documents cases, Mr. Trump also faces legal troubles in state courts.
He has been charged by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in a case that centers on hush money payments made to the porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election.
The efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to reverse his election loss are also the focus of a separate investigation by the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga. That inquiry appears likely to generate charges this month.
Here’s what else to know:
The four charges in this indictment range in severity, with two carrying potential prison sentences of five years each. The other two are closely related: corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to commit that crime. Convictions there are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
The indictment said Mr. Trump had six co-conspirators, and Mr. Smith said the investigation was continuing. Although the indictment did not name those individuals, a lawyer for Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who led many of Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat, said “it appears that Mayor Giuliani is alleged to be co-conspirator No. 1.”
In the next few days, Mr. Trump will be arraigned in Federal District Court in Washington, usually a brief and highly formal affair. He will most likely be asked to enter a plea to the charges. The presiding judge presiding will also set the conditions for his release, which are unlikely to be severe.
The indictment, and any conviction, would not bar Mr. Trump from being elected president. The Constitution establishes criteria for eligibility for president, and a clean criminal record is not one of them.
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