On 1 August 2023, after several months of intensive investigation, the Department of Justice convened a grand jury of ordinary Americans to decide whether to indict the former president of the United States. The grand jury decided that Donald Trump should be held criminally responsible for four crimes related to his interference in the 2020 presidential election.
Donald Trump is charged with the following federal crimes and misdemeanours:
- Conspiracy to defraud the United States of America by lying, swindling, and deceiving to obstruct, impede, and defeat the lawful governmental duty of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election by the federal government.
- Conspiracy to corrupt and to obstruct the work of the Congress of 6 January.
- The obstruction and attempted obstruction of the proceedings of the Congress of 6 January.
- Conspiracy to obstruct the right to vote and the counting of votes.
The defendant is charged with election conspiracy. He is alleged to have hired fake presidential electors in seven states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) and incited them to submit the fake ballots to Congress. In doing so, he sought to undermine the vote of millions of Americans in a free, fair and secure election.
The trial commencement hearing was held in Washington D.C. on 28 August 2023. The presiding judge, Tanya Chutkan, set the date for the verdict against Donald Trump for 4 March 2024.
To the German translation of this article: August 2023: Anklage auf Bundesebene