**WASHINGTON** \u2014 In August 2023, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted former President Donald Trump on charges stemming from his effort to reverse his 2020 election defeat and delay Congress\u2019s certification of the results on Jan. 6, 2021. Special Counsel Jack Smith later filed a superseding indictment in August 2024 after the Supreme Court limited which presidential acts could be prosecuted.<\/p>\n
The case charged Trump with four felonies: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights \u2014 specifically, the right to have votes counted. Prosecutors alleged that Trump and unnamed co-conspirators spread claims of fraud they knew were false, pressed state officials to discard lawful results, promoted slates of electors in states he had lost, sought to have Vice President Mike Pence reject certified votes, and tried to use the Capitol riot to stall the transfer of power.<\/p>\n
Trump pleaded not guilty. He called the prosecution political and argued that his post-election actions were protected official conduct. The Supreme Court\u2019s 2024 immunity ruling forced prosecutors to narrow parts of the case, including allegations involving the Justice Department. The revised indictment still asserted that key steps were private political activity, not official acts.<\/p>\n
The charges never reached a jury. After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Smith moved to dismiss the case without prejudice, citing longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the dismissal. A parallel Georgia racketeering case over the same election was dismissed in November 2025. Smith later told Congress he believed the evidence would have supported a conviction had the federal trial gone forward; Trump and his allies rejected that assessment and portrayed the investigation as abusive.<\/p>\n
The episode left unresolved questions that outlast any single defendant: how far a president may go in contesting an election, where political speech ends and criminal obstruction begins, and whether the courts can try such cases before they are overtaken by another election. The indictment remains a public record of the government\u2019s theory. The courts never rendered a verdict on the facts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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