The Republican front-runner for 2024 is accused of plotting to overturn his loss
. On August 1st he became the first to battle two sets of federal charges at the same time. The Department of Justice accused the former president of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election—a race he still insists he won—in violation of three federal laws. The new charges are theAs in June, it was the defendant who broke the news. On July 18th, in a vituperative social-media post, Mr Trump acknowledged that he had received a letter from thenaming him as a target.
Notably, Mr Trump’s speech on January 6th 2021, in which he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell”, was not central to the charges. No direct link between Mr Trump’s words and the attack on the Capitol is alleged in the 45-page charging document. In fact, Mr Smith states that Mr Trump had a First Amendment right to express his views on the election, and “even to claim, falsely”, that election fraud was responsible for his defeat.
As evidence that Mr Trump was aware that his loss was legitimate, the document lists a host of officials and advisers who told him the truth: that “various allegations of fraud were unsupported”. Mike Pence, the vice-president, is one. Others include senior officials in the, the director of national intelligence, senior campaign staffers, allies in state legislatures, and dozens of state and federal judges.