Ex-President Donald Trump is facing serious legal challenges as the Justice Department issued an indictment related to his questioning of the 2020 election results. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia, Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama in 2014.
Chutkan has been described by the Associated Press as the harshest penalizer of those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion. NBC News has also reported that she is unique in assigning more severe prison sentences to Jan. 6 defendants than what the government proposed.
In November 2021, Chutkan ruled against Trump, compelling him to hand over presidential records he claimed were privileged to the House Jan. 6 committee. In her ruling, she stated that while former presidents have the right to claim that their records are privileged, the incumbent president is not obligated to honor such an assertion.
The latest indictment from the DOJ charges Trump with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
According to special counsel Jack Smith, Trump created significant distrust through his attempts to question the 2020 election results. Smith further alleged that Trump knew his accusations of fraud were baseless when he made them.
Reacting to the possibility of another indictment, Trump shared his thoughts on Truth Social, saying that the special counsel’s office was issuing another fabricated indictment to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election.
Trump also linked the timing of the indictment to the unfolding controversy surrounding President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. He referred to Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee, which allegedly confirmed that President Biden was on numerous calls related to Hunter’s business deals over a decade. These deals have drawn scrutiny and resulted in significant profits for Hunter Biden.
Both President Biden and his son, Hunter, have been accused of accepting a $5 million bribe from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma while Joe Biden was vice president, an allegation they’ve repeatedly denied.