Former President Donald Trump was indicted for an unprecedented third time on August 1, adding another set of serious federal charges to the mounting legal issues he faces.

Trump was indicted as part of the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation, led by special counsel Jack Smith, into the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. The indictment marks the second time Trump has faced federal charges, and he remains the only president to have been federally indicted.

The indictment is the product of a months-long investigation in which Smith’s team questioned several high-profile members of Trump’s circle, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former White House communications director Hope Hicks. It follows the House January 6th committee’s investigation last year, which concluded that Trump incited the insurrection and conspired to defraud the US government, referring him and other associates to the DOJ for prosecution.

Trump seemed to know the indictment was coming. He posted August 1 on TruthSocial that Smith “will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your Favorite President, me,” and previously posted on the platform that he’d received what’s known as a target letter from Smith. He wrote, “They have now effectively indicted me three times,” and called the investigation a “WITCH HUNT” as well as “POLITICAL WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT” in that earlier, July 18 post.

  • joe@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Trump hasn’t exactly been a recluse even before he got into politics. People should have known better even in 2016.

    • downpunxx@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      they DID know better, but racists would throw their own children into fire if it meant “mud people” MIGHT get it worse than they have it, and so they proceeded to just that

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My brothers-in-law were talking about how he should be president way back in 2012. I laughed it off back then.

      • joe@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        My brother in law voted for Trump, but luckily (I guess) he’s also a respiratory therapist and how Trump handled COVID must have opened his eyes to how full of shit Trump is. He’s full on anti Trump these days, but I still give him some shit about being so gullible in 2016.