Regarding Trump's Third Indictment

A few scattered thoughts on the third criminal charge against Donald Trump

Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash

As expected, federal special prosecutor Jack Smith announced an indictment against former president/reality TV show host Donald J. Trump on four counts, including “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States,” “Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding,” and “Conspiracy Against Rights.” The indictment itself runs 45 pages and has already generated a considerable amount of commentary. Still, the hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World had some thoughts on The Meaning of It All.

• I don’t know why, but the first paragraph of the indictment was immensely satisfying to read: “The Defendant, DONALD J. TRUMP, was the forty-fifth President of the United States and a candidate for re-election in 2020. The Defendant lost the 2020 presidential election.” After almost three years of malevolent bullshit emanating from Trump and his toadies about the 2020 election, it’s just nice to see a legal document state that fact so plainly. As Emily Nussbaum analogized, “The new indictment is like the opposite of gaslighting—when something happens that makes you feel less crazy & more confident about the bizarre events you’ve observed.”

• To understand the import of this particular case, I’ll refer you to my typology of the Trump indictments. Both this case and the Georgia indictment — which we all know is coming later this month — fall into the “severe crime, smoking gun evidence quadrant.”¹ You can see this in both the Washington Post and New Yok Times coverage of the indictments. The NYT’s Peter Baker writes, “not since the framers emerged from Independence Hall on that clear, cool day in Philadelphia 236 years ago has any president who was voted out of office been accused of plotting to hold onto power in an elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress.” WaPo’s Kevin Sullivan sounds a similar note: “Historians and legal scholars say the new indictment, brought by federal special prosecutor Jack Smith, is fundamentally more consequential than the earlier ones…. Tuesday’s indictment accuses a former president of the United States with attempting to subvert the democracy upon which the nation rests.” And remember, that Georgia indictment is coming.