The legal troubles of former US president Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – Former US president Donald Trump was indicted on Tuesday for his efforts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election.

It was the third time in four months that he has been criminally charged.

Trump denies any wrongdoing.

The latest development comes as he campaigns to regain the presidency in 2024.

Here is a list of legal troubles facing Trump, who is the front runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Jan 6 and the US Capitol attack

Prosecutors accused Trump in an indictment unveiled on Tuesday of conspiring to defraud the US by preventing Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election.

On January 6, 2021, Trump’s supporters attacked the US Capitol in a bid to stop Congress from certifying Mr Biden’s victory. Prosecutors said Trump “exploited” the attack, refusing his advisors’ suggestion to send a message directing rioters to leave.

Trump and his allies advanced claims of fraud they knew to be untrue, prosecutors said. The indictment says close advisers, including senior intelligence officials, told Trump repeatedly that the election results were legitimate.

Trump and others organised fraudulent slates of electors in seven states, all of which he lost, to submit their votes to be counted and certified as official by Congress on Jan 6, the indictment said.

Trump was ordered to make an initial appearance in Washington federal court on Thursday, Aug 3.

Illegal retention of classified documents

Trump pleaded not guilty in federal court on June 13 in Miami to charges he unlawfully kept classified national security documents when he left office in 2021 and lied to officials who sought to recover them.

The trial is scheduled for May 20, 2024.

Special Counsel Jack Smith accuses Trump of risking national secrets by taking thousands of sensitive papers with him when he left the White House in January 2021 and storing them in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate and his New Jersey golf club, according to the indictment.

Photos included in the indictment show boxes of documents stored on a ballroom stage, in a bathroom and strewn across a storage-room floor.

Those records included information about the secretive US nuclear programme and potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack, the indictment said.

Trump faces charges that include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalises unauthorised possession of defence information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Last Thursday, prosecutors unveiled a new indictment, which charges Trump, his co-defendant and valet Walt Nauta, and a third Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, with attempting to delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago after they were sent a grand jury subpoena for the videos in June 2022.

Prosecutors allege De Oliveira told another employee that “the boss” wanted a server containing security footage to be deleted. He has yet to enter a plea.

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