2023-08-03 00:33:24
by Viviana Mazza
The tycoon in court in Washington for the most serious charge: “He knew he was lying about electoral fraud.” His former deputy, now rival: “Whoever puts himself above the Constitution should not be president”
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK – The third indictment, for which Donald Trump will appear on Thursday in a federal court in Washington, is the most serious. The other two criminal trials — the federal one for classified documents held in Mar-a-Lago, which will begin in May, and the other, in Manhattan, for payments related to a sex scandal, in March — concern the personal conduct of he. The most recent indictment (not necessarily the last, another should arrive shortly from Georgia) concerns his actions as president and the very maintenance of democracy, since he is accused of having attempted to subvert the outcome of the elections of 2020.
Trump’s lawyers will appeal to the first amendment to the Constitution which protects freedom of expression, but in the 45-page indictment, special prosecutor Jack Smith says that freedom of speech (and even of lying) is not in question: the charges concern the actions of the former president.
There are four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct government proceedings (vote certification); conspiracy against voters’ rights (that their votes be counted). Maximum sentences of between 5 and 20 years in prison are envisaged for each.
Six accomplices are named, not named, but five of them easily identifiable: attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. The case traces the House Committee’s investigation into the assault on Congress, held live on television last year, but contains new information based mainly on the testimony of former Vice President Mike Pence, nominated a hundred times (for example, Trump told him : «You are too honest»).
The fact that Trump tried to subvert the outcome of the vote is not actually in dispute; the question is whether that constitutes a crime. The prosecution wants to show that Trump, between November 2020 and January 2021 , knew that there were no grounds for accusing his rival of fraud, yet continued to hinder the transfer of power to Joe Biden with a variety of tools: lies and actions, such as bending the Justice Department to his will, creating false “major voters” who would confirm his victory in seven states won by Biden, convincing Pence to subvert the certification in Congress on January 6th.
Contrary to what the House Committee recommended, Smith does not accuse Trump of inciting the Capitol Hill revolt, but of having “exploited violence and chaos”. To demonstrate that Trump “knew” – a crucial aspect – the prosecutor lists the ministers of justice, advisers, officials, governors, secretaries of state and parliamentarians who, in addition to Pence, told him that Biden had won. But the tycoon’s lawyer John Lauro says: “I want to see how they’ll prove that Trump believed the fraud allegations were false.”
The defense will argue that Trump contested the findings in good faith and did nothing but pursue legal avenues available to him, a view shared by 74 percent of Republicans according to a NYTimes/Siena College poll. Biden called the allegations “persuasive.” But Obama privately warned that Trump, with whom he is neck and neck in the polls, will be a “formidable rival.” The former president wrote on the social Truth: “In 2024 we will win, we will be stronger than ever”
August 2, 2023 (change August 2, 2023 | 22:38)
© Time.News
#Trump #remains #strong #shouldnt #underestimated #Pences #testimony #indictment #decisive #time.news