Donald Trump on Tuesday was hit with criminal charges for a third time in four months - this time arising from efforts to overturn his 2020 U.S. election defeat - as he campaigns to regain the presidency next year.
The charges stem from Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into allegations Trump - the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination - sought to reverse his loss to Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Minutes before the indictment was handed down, Trump posted on his Truth Social media platform that he had heard to expect an indictment.
"I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President," he wrote. He also alleged the indictment was timed to distract attention from damaging testimony earlier this week about alleged misdeeds and influence peddling by the Biden family.
As the indictment's details filtered out, Trump was summoned to appear at 4 p.m. ET Thursday, before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington.
Background
Officials have testified that Trump pressured them based on claims of widespread voting fraud. Protesters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden's victory.
Trump on July 18 said he had received a letter from Smith telling him that he was a target of the Jan. 6 grand jury investigation in Washington.
Trump already had become the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges. He has sought to portray the prosecutions as part of a politically motivated witch hunt.
These represent a second round of federal charges by Smith, who was appointed a special counsel in November by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Trump pleaded not guilty after a federal grand jury in Miami convened by the special counsel charged him in June in a 37-count indictment over his unlawfully retention of classified government documents after leaving office in 2021 and obstructing justice. Prosecutors accused him of risking some of the most sensitive U.S. national security secrets.
Last Thursday, prosecutors added three more criminal counts against Trump, bringing the total to 40, accusing him of ordering employees to delete security videos as he was under investigation for retaining the documents.
The first charges brought against Trump emerged in March when a grand jury convened by Manhattan's district attorney indicted him. Trump in April pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts accusing him of falsifying business records concerning a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had with him. Trump has denied the encounter.
Trump, 77, leads a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates as he seeks a rematch with Biden, 80, next year. Biden in April launched his re-election campaign.
Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, has shown an ability to survive legal troubles and political controversies. Many Republicans - elected officials and voters - have rallied behind Trump, portraying the charges against him as selective prosecution and a Democratic plot to destroy him politically.
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