Manhattan and South Florida typically bring a lot more glitz and glamour than Washington, D.C., does, but the episode of the Trump Indictment Saga worth watching is the one taking place in our nation’s capital.
The crimes that special counsel Jack Smith has formally accused Donald Trump of in a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday ― conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights ― cut to the heart of Trumpism, bringing the former president’s relentless lies and disdain for democracy to the forefront.
“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” Smith said at a lightning-quick news conference Tuesday night. “As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies ― lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government.”
By comparison, the charges Trump faces in Manhattan and South Florida are more about his megalomania ― his desire to hide his alleged extramarital affairs, his need to keep control of his boxes ― than his malevolence. The nearly 250-year-long American project of realizing a liberal democratic republic was not threatened by Trump’s financial frauds or classified document hoarding. It was threatened by Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election and keep himself in power.
The 45-page indictment makes it clear how serious that effort was, how Trump worked with lawyers and operatives to turn his big lie about winning an election he clearly lost into a reality. How his own administration and campaign staff, from his attorney general to his vice president, told him he was lying. And how it eventually became clear Trump knew he was lying and just didn’t care.
“You’re too honest,” Trump told then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 1, 2021, when Pence reiterated his opposition to Trump’s scheme to stay in office despite losing the election two months earlier.
That is why Trump’s trial in Washington on the charges brought on Tuesday will be the Trial of the Semiquincentennial. No trial in American history has come close to the importance of trying a former president, who is also running to reclaim the White House, for an attempt to steal an election.
The trial may not ever happen: It’s unclear when it would be scheduled ― Trump is set to be arraigned Thursday afternoon ― and, if Trump does win the 2024 election, he’s likely to try to pardon himself for any crimes.
“This is nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner,” the Trump campaign said Tuesday in a statement full of adjectives but short on evidence.
Trump faces another investigation, this one in Georgia, covering similar territory and zeroing in on his attempts to bully officials there into helping him steal the state’s 16 electoral college votes. If and when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brings charges ― and she says a final decision will be made by Sept. 1 ― Trump would not be able to pardon himself for a state-level crime.
Fittingly, the latest indictment also appears to be the one most likely to damage Trump’s political standing. No, it won’t be a knockout blow, but the tightness of modern presidential elections means even the slightest advantage could be determinative. As FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich notes, polling gives some indication voters see Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, as far more serious than his hoarding of classified documents or hush-money payments.
It’s also worth noting, for all of Trump’s bloviating about a witch hunt and a biased justice system, the Department of Justice initially seemed inclined to follow the lead of much of the American establishment and deem Trump to be someone else’s problem. After Jan. 6, it took more than a year for the Justice Department to look seriously at Trump’s role in promoting election lies and the eventual riot itself, even initially blocking investigators from forming a task force looking at the role of people around Trump.
The evidence of Trump’s involvement, especially that gathered by a House select committee set up to investigate the events surrounding the attack on the Capitol, eventually proved overwhelming. Attorney General Merrick Garland would name Smith as a special counsel shortly after the 2022 midterm elections, when it became clear that a Trump vs. Biden rematch was a live possibility.
All of that led to Tuesday’s indictment, and it could, Smith indicated, lead to even more indictments.
“Since the attack on our Capitol, the Department of Justice has remained committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day,” Smith said. “This case is brought consistent with that commitment and our investigation of other individuals continues.”