Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of the Justice Department's probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Trump faces four charges in the indictment: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
"The Defendant, Donald J. Trump, was the forty-fifth President of the United States and a candidate for re-election in 2020," the indictment begins. "The Defendant lost the 2020 election."
"Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power," the indictment continues, adding that "for more than two months" after the 2020 election, Trump "spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won."
"These claims were false, and [Trump] knew they were false," the court filing reads. "But [Trump] repeated and widely disseminated them anyway — to make his knowingly false claims legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election."
Trump is expected to appear in court on Thursday. The case was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2014. Judge Chutkan was confirmed unanimously by the Senate (a 95-0 vote) in 2014.
Speaking after the indictment was unsealed, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith encouraged Americans to "read it in full."
"The attack on our nation's capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy," Smith said. "As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies -- lies by [Trump] targeted at obstructing the bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation's process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election."
Smith went on to hail those who defended the Capitol as "heroes."
"They're patriots and they are the very best for us," he said. "They did not just defend a building with people sheltering in it, they put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a people. They defended the very institutions and principles that define the United States."
In a statement Tuesday evening, Trump's campaign baselessly called the indictment a "pathetic attempt" by the Biden administration and the Justice Department to interfere with next year's election.
"These un-American witch hunts will fail and President Trump will be re-elected to the White House so he can save our Country from the abuse, incompetence, and corruption that is running through the veins of our Country at levels never seen before," the campaign's statement reads.
Tuesday's indictment in the nation's capital is Trump's third this year. Before Tuesday, Trump faced nearly 75 charges across two previous cases: Thirty-four in a New York case stemming from alleged hush money payments to an adult film star before the 2016 presidential election, and 40 brought by the Justice Department in a separate case related to alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Florida estate. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has called the cases against him a partisan witch hunt.
The former president could still face more legal trouble in the weeks ahead. Charges in the Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney's probe into efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results could come in early August.
After losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump made numerous false statements about widespread voter fraud as he and his allies sought to challenge and overturn the results of the election, despite current and former members of his own administration stating that those claims were without merit. Courts nationwide, including the U.S. Supreme Court, rejected numerous challenges to the election results brought by Trump and his allies.
Those efforts ultimately culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, when a mob of his supporters marched to the U.S. Capitol and stormed the building in an effort to disrupt the counting and certification of Joe Biden's win. More than 1,000 people in nearly all 50 states have been arrested in connection with the riot.
Prosecutors have questioned multiple Trump administration officials before a grand jury in Washington, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who was repeatedly pressured by Trump to ignore his constitutional duty and block the counting in Congress of electoral votes on Jan. 6.
According to the indictment, Trump told Pence that "you're too honest" when the former vice president objected to overturning Biden's win. Pence, per the indictment, was among several key officials who told Trump that his claims of widespread election fraud were without merit, including senior Trump-appointed DOJ officials.
Prosecutors have also interviewed other Trump advisers, including former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, as well as local election officials in states including Michigan and New Mexico who endured a pressure campaign from the then-president about overturning election results in their states.
Trump quickly sent a fundraising email out to supporters Tuesday following the indictment, charging that his opponents' "only hope is to try and send me to JAIL for the rest of my life."
“Even after 3 indictments, I will continue to stand in their way, because the fate of our nation hangs in the balance in the 2024 election," Trump wrote in the appeal. "It’s not just my freedom on the line, but yours as well — and I will NEVER let them take it from you.”
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.