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      Trump under investigation for civil rights conspiracy in January 6 inquiry

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      Federal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results have evidence to charge the former president with three crimes, including section 241 of the US legal code that makes it unlawful to conspire to violate civil rights, two people familiar with the matter said.The potential charges detailed in a target letter sent to Trump by prosecutors from the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who also charged Trump with retaining classified documents last month, was the clearest signal of an imminent indictment.Prosecutors appear to have evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States based on the target letter, two statutes that the House select committee examining the January 6 Capitol attack issued criminal referrals for last year.The target letter to Trump identified a previously unconsidered third charge, the sources said. That is section 241 of title 18 of the US code, which makes it unlawful to conspire to threaten or intimidate a person in the “free exercise” of any right or privilege under the “Constitution or laws of the United States”.The statute, enacted to protect the civil rights of Black voters targeted by white supremacy groups after the US civil war, is unusual because it is typically used by prosecutors in law enforcement misconduct and hate crime prosecutions, though its use has expanded in recent years.What the potential charges means for Trump is unclear.Prosecutors have been examining various instances of Trump pressuring officials like his former vice-president Mike Pence, but Trump’s efforts to obstruct the transfer of power could also be construed as conspiring to defraud voters more generally.The other two statutes, meanwhile, suggest a core part of the case against Trump is focused on the so-called fake electors scheme and the former president’s efforts to use the fake slates in a conspiracy to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win on 6 January 2021.The target letter did not cite any seditious conspiracy, incitement of insurrection or deprivation of rights under color of law – other areas for which legal experts have suggested Trump could have legal risk.A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the contents of the target letter, though a senior adviser to Trump did not dispute that section 241 was listed when reached late on Tuesday night.The New York Times also reported the inclusion of the statute.Trump, who is facing unprecedented legal peril as he leads the pack of candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, called the target letter “HORRIFYING NEWS” in a post on his Truth Social platform, where he first disclosed the development.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionLast year, the House select committee that investigated the Capitol attack concluded that Trump committed multiple crimes in an attempt to reverse his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding.The committee issued symbolic criminal referrals to the justice department, although at that point the justice department had since stepped up its criminal investigation with the addition of new prosecutors in spring 2022 before they were folded into the special counsel’s office.House investigators also concluded that there was evidence for prosecutors to charge Trump with conspiracy to defraud and obstruction of an official proceeding. They also issued referrals for incitement of insurrection, which was not listed in the target letter.Should prosecutors charge Trump in the federal January 6 investigation, the case could go to trial much more quickly than the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case – before the 2024 election – because pre-trial proceedings would not be delayed by rules governing national security materials.Trump was charged last month for retaining national security materials and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. Trump and his co-defendant, his valet Walt Nauta, who was charged with conspiring to obstruct and making false statements to the FBI, have both pleaded not guilty.The target letter to Trump comes weeks before the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, is expected to charge Trump and his allies for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, the Guardian has previously reported. More

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      Sixteen people charged in Michigan 2020 false elector scheme

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      Sixteen people who signed paperwork falsely claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election in Michigan have been criminally charged, Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced on Tuesday.Michigan was one of several swing states that Trump lost in 2020 in which he and his legal team convened alternate slates of electors as part of an effort to overturn the election. The Tuesday charges mark the first time any of the electors have been charged.Each of the fake electors was charged with eight felony counts, including multiple counts of forgery, a felony punishable by 14 years in prison in Michigan. The other charges include conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and election law forgery. The charges were filed in state court in Lansing, the Michigan capital.The 16 people charged include Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican party, and Kathy Berden, a national commiteewoman for the Republican National Committee. The other 14 fake electors held various connections to the state and local party.Knowing that Trump lost the election, the 16 electors met in the basement of the Michigan Republican party headquarters on 14 December 2020 – the same day the legitimate electors convened, and three weeks before Congress would meet to certify the election results on 6 January – and knowingly signed “multiple certificates” falsely proclaiming Trump the winner in their state, Nessel said in a statement. Those certificates were transmitted to the National Archives in Washington.“This plan – to reject the will of the voters and undermine democracy – was fraudulent and legally baseless,” Nessel said in recorded remarks. “The False Electors’ actions undermined the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections, and not only violated the spirit of the laws enshrining and defending our democracy but, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan and peaceably transfer power in America.“Undoubtedly, there will be those who will claim these charges are political in nature. But where there is overwhelming evidence of guilt in respect to multiple crimes, the most political act I could engage in as a prosecutor would be to take no action at all,” Nessel added.The Michigan charges come as both the justice department and the district attorney in Fulton county, Georgia, are examining fake electors as part of a broader inquiry into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump announced on Tuesday he had received a letter from the justice department saying he was a target of an investigation. Charges in Fulton county are expected sometime before the end of August.Nessel referred the fake electors to the justice department in January 2022, but reopened the case earlier this year when federal prosecutors had not brought charges, according to a person familiar with the matter.Slates of false electors were convened in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In addition to the criminal investigations into the broader scheme, there is also a civil lawsuit in Wisconsin seeking $2.4m from those who signed their names and to block them from serving as electors again.Hugo Lowell contributed reporting More

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      in US Politics

      Georgia grand jury selected in Trump case over attempt to overturn 2020 defeat

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      A grand jury selected in Georgia on Tuesday is expected to say whether Donald Trump and associates should face criminal charges over their attempt to overturn the former president’s defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.The district attorney of Fulton county, Fani Willis, has indicated she expects to obtain indictments between the end of July and the middle of August. Trump also faces possible federal charges over his election subversion, culminating in his incitement of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.Trump already faces trials on 71 criminal charges: 34 in New York over hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels and 37 in Florida, from federal prosecutors and regarding his retention of classified documents after leaving office.His legal jeopardy does not stop there. In a civil case in New York, Trump was fined about $5m after being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll. Another civil case, concerning Trump’s business practices, continues in the same state.Grand jury selection for the Georgia case comes at a febrile moment in US society. Denying all wrongdoing and claiming political persecution, Trump remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination to face Biden again at the polls next year.Trump has repeatedly claimed Willis, who is African American, is motivated by racism as well as political animus. Willis has indicated possible charges under an anti-racketeering law also used to target members of gangs.Before 2020, no Democratic candidate for president had won Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992. But Biden beat Trump by 0.2% of the vote, or a little under 12,000 ballots.As he explored ways to stay in office, Trump was recorded telling the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s win. The Fulton county investigation of such attempted election subversion has produced dramatic headlines, stoking anger on both sides of a deepening political divide.In February, the foreperson of the grand jury that investigated the case told CNN it would be a “good assumption” that a subsequent panel would recommend indictments – to be decided on by Willis – for more than a dozen people.The foreperson also told the New York Times it was “not rocket science” to work out if Trump would be one of those people. The former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is among Trump aides and associates also believed at risk of indictment.In March, the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, was reported to have told grand jurors: “If somebody had told Trump that aliens came down and stole Trump ballots … Trump would’ve believed it.”Last month, eight of 16 “fake electors” who sought to falsely declare Trump the winner in Georgia were revealed to have reached immunity deals.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTwo grand juries were impaneled on Tuesday, each with 23 members and three alternates.Elie Honig, a former state and federal prosecutor now senior legal analyst for CNN, said: “This is now a ‘regular’ grand jury. At the end of it, if Fani Willis asks for an indictment, they will vote on it. The vast majority of times, that does result in an indictment.”Ed Garland, a local attorney, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the jurors would face an “awesome responsibility” that “no other group of Georgia citizens has ever dealt with – the potential indictment of a former president”.Garland added: “This is a case that has been saturated in the media with political overtones, so it is imperative for them to be fair and impartial and for our judicial system to live up to its ideals.”At the courthouse, the judge presiding over grand jury selection, Robert McBurney, reminded reporters of the sensitivity of proceedings. “It would not go well if any of [the jurors’] pictures appear in any of your outlets,” he said. “If you need extra photos, get Fani Willis.”Filmed arriving at the courthouse, Willis did not speak to reporters. More

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      in US Politics

      Man accused of attacking Capitol officer as January 6 arrests pile up

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      Americans continue to be arrested on suspicion of taking part in the Capitol attack, two and half years after the January 6 insurrection by supporters of Donald Trump.Court documents on Monday showed that a Michigan man accused of attacking a police officer with a flagpole during the insurrection was arrested in Florida last Friday, a day after an armed man also wanted for the rioting was arrested near Barack Obama’s Washington home. Another man suspected of violence at the Capitol was arrested in Maryland last month.Latest filings show that Jeremy Rodgers, 28, was arrested last Friday in Orlando and faces felony and misdemeanor charges, including assaulting a federal officer with a weapon.Prosecutors say surveillance video shows Rodgers carrying a blue flag on his way to the Capitol and using it to strike a Capitol police officer on the helmet and then swinging the flagpole in the direction of officers, during the swarming of the seat of the US Congress.He is accused of joining with thousands of other Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol in a deadly insurrection that sought, ultimately unsuccessfully, to halt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 election, at the urging of the defeated president.Rodgers was among a crowd pushing through police lines outside the entrance to the chamber of the House of Representatives, investigators said. After another scuffle with police, Rodgers paraded through the Capitol rotunda waving his flag before leaving, officials said.Last Thursday, a man armed with explosive materials and weapons, and also wanted for crimes related to the Capitol attack insurrection was arrested in the Washington neighborhood where Obama lives, law enforcement officials said.Taylor Taranto, 37, was chased by Secret Service agents before being apprehended, and had an open warrant on charges related to the 2021 insurrection, two law enforcement officials said, and also had made social media threats against a public figure.Meanwhile, on 13 June, Adam Obest, 42, of Thurmont, Maryland, was arrested and charged with crimes including assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon on January 6, 2021, after reviews of police body camera footage, federal prosecutors announced. He and his wife had attended Trump’s rally shortly beforehand.More than 1,000 people in total have been arrested, across almost all states, for January 6-related crimes. More

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      in US Politics

      Republicans claim Democrats can’t keep us safe – crime data disagrees

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      Be it congressional campaigns or defending Donald Trump from his many legal entanglements, Republicans have kept up a consistent message to the US: Democrats can’t be trusted to keep you safe.“Alvin Bragg … is going after President Trump when you have all kinds of things happening in his town that are harmful to families who live there,” Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, one of Trump’s top allies in Congress, said on Fox News after the Democratic Manhattan prosecutor in March indicted Trump for allegedly falsifying business records. Jordan, who chairs the House judiciary committee, appeared to be ignoring data that shows New York is one of the safest cities in the country.As the Covid-19 pandemic upended the American economy and day-to-day life in 2020, homicides shot up by 30%, the largest one-year jump on record. Republicans used that spike, along with broader crime concerns, as a cudgel against Democrats to successfully regain control of the House of Representatives two years later.But Third Way, a center-left thinktank, has found that states which voted for Trump in the 2020 election had overall higher murder rates than those which supported Joe Biden. This trend, called the “red state murder gap”, has been consistent for 20 years. The pattern remains the same even if the most populous county in each red state is excluded – undercutting an argument common on the right that large cities, which tend to be led by Democrats, are to blame for homicides.“There’s a narrative out there that the crime problem is a blue states, blue city crime problem,” said Jim Kessler, Third Way’s executive vice-president for policy and an author of the study. “We thought, ‘OK, let’s challenge that, let’s see if it’s true.’ And it’s not.”What’s harder to tease out is why this split exists, and even the degree to which political factors are to blame for it. Many of the worst-affected states are in the south, a region that has had historically higher murder rates. And though crime may be a national political issue, in reality, local authorities such as mayors and police officials often have the most powerful roles in ensuring public safety.“I think it’s very difficult to put a partisan spin on this,” said Jeff Asher, a co-founder of AH Datalytics, which tracks criminal justice data. “I think that you can maybe say that places with state legislatures that are not focused on finding effective solutions to gun violence, you could place that blame on them. But generally … gun violence is local, and it’s usually local causes rather than statewide or federal causes.”Before Mississippi overtook it in 2019 and 2020, Louisiana led the nation in homicides per capita from 2000 to 2018, with its most populous city, New Orleans, ranking among the most murder-plagued in the nation. Asher, who lives in the city, blamed that on a range of factors, from the police department’s failure to solve many homicides to a lack of employment and educational opportunities there.And while Louisiana’s electoral votes have gone to Republicans in every election since 2000, it currently has a Democratic governor and was viewed as a blue state in the 1990s, as were many other southern states that are now considered Republican strongholds.“These issues were here in the 90s, when Louisiana was voting twice for Bill Clinton. These issues have not suddenly become issues,” Asher said.When Nick Suplina, the senior vice-president for law and policy at the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety, looks at the states leading the country’s homicide rate, he sees a map reflecting loose gun laws. Firearms were used in almost 80% of homicides in 2020, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, but in much of the south, state legislatures are controlled by Republicans who have in recent years made it easier to buy a gun, and carry it where one pleases.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“When you’re seeing homicides rates going up, in 2020, for instance, that’s driven by gun homicides, that’s driven by easy access to firearms, predominantly by people who shouldn’t have access to firearms,” Suplina said. “And so, really, what you’re seeing in this study isn’t so much about politics or voting proclivities, but, rather, what states have strong gun laws and what states have weak ones.”Third Way’s study covers the 2000-2020 time period, during which the National Rifle Association pushed state lawmakers to remove or oppose regulations over firearm background checks, permitting and safe storage. Many states also have preemption laws on the books that prevent mayors from enacting tighter gun legislation within their city limits.And even when states pass stricter gun laws, they are easily skirted. “Our gun laws are only as strong as the weakest gun laws of a neighboring state,” Suplina said. “We have porous state borders in this country. And so in states like Illinois, and specifically with respect to Chicago, most of their crime guns are starting in Indiana and quickly making their way across the border.”There are signs that the pandemic-era wave of murders has crested. Statistics from AH Datalytics indicate murder rates in 90 US cities until the end of May have fallen by about 12% year on year, including in New York City, where Jordan convened a hearing of the judiciary committee into the city’s purported crime problem shortly after Bragg brought his charges against Trump.“If chairman Jordan truly cared about public safety, he could take a short drive to Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron or Toledo in his home state, instead of using taxpayer dollars to travel hundreds of miles out of his way,” Bragg’s office said in a statement before the hearing convened, referring to cities in Jordan’s home state that all have higher murder rates than New York. More

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      Donald Trump to face trial in mid-August over classified documents charges

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      US district judge Aileen Cannon has set an initial trial date of 14 August in Florida on former US president Donald Trump’s federal charges of willful retention of classified government records and obstruction of justice, according to a court order on Tuesday.The justice department’s special counsel in the case, Jack Smith, promised a speedy trial after a 37-count indictment charging Trump with willfully retaining classified government records and obstructing justice.But the complexities of handling highly classified evidence, the degree to which Trump’s legal team challenges the government’s pre-trial motions, and the way the judge manages the schedule could all lead to a trial that is anything but swift, legal experts say, and a lengthy delay is widely expected.Trump’s lawyers and a US justice department spokesperson did not immediately return requests for comment.The latest order came after a US judge on Monday ordered Trump’s defense lawyers not to release evidence in the classified documents case to the media or the public, according to a court filing.The order from US magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart also put strict conditions on Trump’s access to the materials.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump was arraigned in Miami federal court last Tuesday, during which he pleaded not guilty to charges he unlawfully kept national-security documents when he left office and lied to officials who sought to recover them. More

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      in US Politics

      What’s going to happen when Donald Trump shows up for his arraignment?

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      Donald Trump will make his first court appearance on Tuesday after being charged with 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified documents after leaving the presidency. He is set to appear at 3pm at the federal courthouse in Miami.It will be Trump’s second arraignment this year. In April, he was arraigned in Manhattan on separate criminal charges related to his hush money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.What is an arraignment and how is it different from an indictment?The document when someone is charged with a crime is called an indictment – the indictment involving Trump was unsealed on Friday. An arraignment is a defendant’s first appearance in front of a judge in a criminal case.The defendant is formally notified of the charges against them and enters a plea. The judge who oversees the arraignment considers whether to grant bail and allow the defendant to be released pending trial. The judge who oversees the arraignment may not be the same judge who oversees the rest of the case.What is going to happen when Trump shows up in court?Trump’s initial appearance is likely to be brief. He will be formally presented with the 37 criminal charges against him and informed of the penalties, and then he can enter a plea. Trump will almost certainly plead not guilty.Defendants can choose to have the indictment read to them in open court, but many choose to waive that in order to get the hearing over quickly, said Barbara McQuade, who served as the US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan from 2010 to 2017.The judge can also set bail and decide to detain a defendant in custody while trial is pending.“The judge will consider the bail issue, but I would be stunned if Trump were held pending trial. A more likely scenario is that Trump will be ordered to surrender his passport and promise to pay some sum of money if he fails to appear,” McQuade said in an email.“The court may consider as a condition of bond some sort of gag order prohibiting Trump from discussing the case, the prosecutor or the judge, but that can be tricky in light of first amendment concerns because Trump is running for president,” she added.Defendants in federal cases are often fingerprinted and have their mugshot taken, McQuade said. But when Trump was arraigned on state charges in New York earlier this year, authorities did not take a mugshot. McQuade said she expected Trump to be fingerprinted. But neither a mugshot nor handcuffs were likely, she said, because people already know what Trump looks like and the former president already has Secret Service protection.Who is the judge overseeing the hearing?Magistrate judge Jonathan Goodman is scheduled to be the judge on duty at the federal courthouse in Miami when Trump appears. He will reportedly oversee the initial appearance, the Miami Herald and NBC News reported on Monday. Magistrate judges handle initial appearances and assist federal judges with other matters.Goodman is a former newspaper reporter and civil litigator who has been a magistrate judge since 2010, according to the Miami Herald. He is well-respected and known for his dry humor, the paper reported.While Goodman will handle Trump’s initial appearance, the overall case will be overseen by US district judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the federal bench in 2020. At an earlier stage in the case, Cannon issued a series of rulings in favor of Trump and was later rebuked by an appeals court. Those rulings have prompted concerns that Cannon will favor Trump as she oversees the case.Will the appearance be televised?No. Federal courts do not allow cameras or recordings in the courtroom.Goodman denied a request evening from a coalition of news organizations that filed a request on Monday to allow for limited recording in the courtroom or the hallways leading to the courtroom. They also requested that the court release same-day audio of the proceedings. “Allowing photographs would undermine the massive security arrangements put in place,” Goodman wrote in an order on Monday evening. He said that he expected an expedited transcript of the proceedings to be available on Tuesday.Cecilia Altonga, the chief district judge for the southern district of Florida, also entered an order on Monday barring reporters from bringing any electronics into the courthouse building.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWill Trump be placed in jail before or after the hearing?No. Trump does not pose the kind of flight risk that would require detaining him.Why is the case being heard in Miami?Because Trump kept the classified documents at issue at his home in Mar-a-Lago, the special counsel, Jack Smith, chose to file charges in the southern district of Florida, the federal jurisdiction where Mar-a-Lago is located. That decision was deliberate and is somewhat of a risk. Smith could have tried to file the charges in Washington DC, where a federal grand jury had been investigating the matter, but it would have probably prompted a legal battle over the proper venue for the case. By filing in Florida, Smith took that issue off the table.But filing the case in Florida also brings its own risks. Most notably, the case will be overseen by Cannon, who has issued rulings favorable to Trump in the past. A jury in Miami may also be more conservative and Trump-friendly than a jury in Washington.Who are Trump’s lawyers?It’s not entirely clear who will make up Trump’s legal team. Two of his attorneys abruptly resigned last week after he was indicted.Trump will appear on Tuesday with Todd Blanche, a defense lawyer also representing him in the Manhattan case, and Boris Epshteyn, another lawyer and controversial top aide who has drawn attention from federal prosecutors himself. He may also appear with Chris Kise, a former solicitor general of Florida who has represented Trump in the documents case. Trump was still interviewing local lawyers on Monday to help represent him.What is Trump charged with again?Trump is charged with 31 counts of unauthorized retention of national defense information, a violation of the Espionage Act. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.Trump and Waltine Nauta, his valet, face additional charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, tampering with grand jury evidence and concealing evidence in a federal investigation. Each of those charges is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.Trump and Nauta also face additional charges of making a false statement. Those carry a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison.What happens next?After the appearance, Cannon is likely to set a scheduling order laying out deadlines and a timeline for discovery, motions and a trial. Smith, the special counsel, requested that Trump get a speedy trial last week. But there are likely to be extensive disputes over discovery and classified materials that will drag the case out.“I think an initial trial date of next spring or summer is most likely, but with more adjournments before the trial actually starts if the motions get messy, which seems likely in light of Trump’s combative nature,” McQuade said. “I’m sure [the Department of Justice] will want to try the case before election day and Trump will want to stall. Judge Cannon gets to decide.”Hugo Lowell contributed reporting More

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      in US Politics

      Donald Trump uses his legal woes to plead for money from supporters – again

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      Federally indicted Donald Trump, newly charged with multiple counts over his mishandling of classified documents, is using his legal woes to plead for money – again.The sweeping 37-count felony indictment paints a damaging portrait of Trump’s treatment of sensitive documents, accusing him of defying justice department demands to return papers he had taken to his Florida home of Mar-a-Lago, and even storing some of them in a shower.But the indictment’s existence did not stop the Trump campaign pleading for money on the back of it.In a series of messages on Thursday night and Friday morning, Trump appealed to his supporters by declaring the indictment an attack by “the Deep State” on the “forgotten, hardworking men and women of this country”, and asking them to donate to his campaign.“Please make a contribution to peacefully DEFEND our movement from the never-ending witch hunts – and together, even during these darkest of times, we will prove that our movement is truly UNBREAKABLE,” said in one email Trump sent to supporters on Friday morning.The barrage of requests mirrors Trump’s fundraising strategy following his first indictment at the end of March, when a Manhattan court charged the former US president with falsifying business records over hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016.Trump, who is set to appear in a federal court in Miami on Tuesday, has maintained he is an “innocent man” though he could face prison if convicted.“Joe Biden’s Department of Justice has INDICTED me even though I did NOTHING wrong,” said another Friday morning email.The email ended with links asking supporters for donations of varying amounts, from $25 to $250, pooled by the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, the main fundraising arm of the ex-president’s 2024 campaign.Those links directed supporters to an online donation portal, which displays another message with more pleas for donations.“President Trump will NEVER SURRENDER our mission to save America. And he knows you won’t either!” reads part of the message online.It adds: “(But if you’re struggling – like far too many Americans are right now – please ignore the rest of this message, don’t contribute, and take care of your family and yourself.)”Yet another request immediately followed: “Please make a contribution to SAVE OUR COUNTRY – for 1,500% impact.”The Trump campaign raised $12m in the week following his first indictment, according to the New York Times. About a quarter of those who donated in the two weeks following it had never contributed to his campaign before, according to Politico.Special prosecutor Jack Smith, who led the documents investigation, is also heading a federal investigation into Trump’s role in the January 6 US Capitol attack.Trump is also facing charges in Georgia where prosecutors say they expect to reach a decision on the former president and his allies’ interference with the 2020 election results in the state.In a four-minute video emailed to supporters and posted to Truth Social, Trump repeatedly called the documents investigation a “boxes hoax” and “election interference” as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination.Trump is the first former American president to be charged with a federal crime by the government he once oversaw.“I AM AN INNOCENT MAN. THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS TOTALLY CORRUPT. THIS IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE & A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME,” Trump said in the post on Thursday night.Trump also appears to be using the indictment to criticize the press.“During an unprecedented moment like this, most politicians would give their first spoken remarks to the Fake News Media. But not me. My loyalty lies with my fiercest defenders like YOU,” Trump wrote supporters.“Our country is going to hell, and they come after Donald Trump, weaponizing the justice department, weaponizing the FBI.”Calling other investigations against him, including two impeachments, as hoaxes.“I’m an innocent man. I did nothing wrong.” More