Another day, another indictment for Donald Trump

The former US president is due to appear in a federal court in Washington DC tomorrow after he was indicted last night on four charges relating to his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 US election. 

This is the third time the brazen 77-year-old has faced criminal charges in just four months. 

Though the latest indictment is considered the most serious. Trump is facing one count of conspiracy to defraud the US, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, one for corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding and one for conspiracy against rights.

The 45-page indictment doesn’t hold back, plainly labelling Trump a liar. For over two months following the election day, during his frenzied attempt to hold onto power, “The Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”

And as we all know, these were consequential lies – ones which culminated in his die-hard supporters staging the historic – and violent – attack on the US capitol. 

Tomorrow, Trump will appear before magistrate judge Moxila A Upadhyaya at a DC district court where prosecutors will outline the charges against him and the judge will set his bail conditions. It’s unclear when his trial will take place, though special counsel Jack Smith says prosecutors will seek “a speedy trial”.

Admittedly, it’s a little tricky to keep track of the number of legal cases swirling around the former President. 

He is already scheduled to stand trial in March in New York for alleged hush-money payments he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and he is due to stand trial in May in the federal case in Florida stemming from classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate. 

He is also expected to face state charges in Georgia for meddling with the elections there. In May, a New York jury also found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, following allegations brought against him by writer E Jean Carroll. 

The Trump campaign team has issued a predictably defensive response to the latest round of charges, declaring “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.”

It also made an extremely tasteless historical comparison: “The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.” 

Trump’s campaign team may well be right to remain confident in his election chances. Despite his mounting legal troubles, polling shows the former president has very much solidified his status as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. 

The cries of a politically-motivated witch hunt, featuring after each of his indictments, may even be helping him to solidify support within his base. 

That said, while it could help him secure the GOP nomination, when it comes to fighting the general election, the growing list of charges he faces might not appeal so much to moderates and all those sitting on the red-blue fence. 

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