Trump indictment shows complexity of broader effort: Ex-prosecutor
- Trump has now been indicted a third time
- Khardori: Prosecutors think he had ‘extensive’ effort to overturn election
- The former president denies all wrongdoing
(NewsNation) — A federal grand jury has indicted Donald Trump on four charges. Former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori thinks prosecutors are trying to show that the case isn’t just about Jan. 6, but also involved an alleged long-term effort that was “complicated” and “extensive” to overturn the 2020 election.
“It sounds like from the charges and the fact that Jan. 6 isn’t mentioned until very deep in the indictment, that they don’t have compelling evidence tying Trump to any violence on that day or any planning or coordination of the riot on that day,” Khardori said during an appearance on “The Hill on NewsNation.”
He added: “From the perspective of people who take issue with this effort, they believe it was a very convoluted, complicated, extensive effort over the course of a couple of months.”
Federal prosecutors say Trump’s “knowingly false claims” created an atmosphere of “mistrust and anger” that damaged the public’s faith in the 2020 election.
“For more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been an outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won,” the indictment reads. “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.
Trump’s campaign called the indictment the “latest chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election.”
The former president faces the following charges: One count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count each of obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to do so, and one count of conspiracy against rights.
The charges come after the House Jan. 6 Committee in December ended its investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by recommending charges against Trump. Trump has denied any wrongdoings.