Democratic leaders: Trump indictment ‘most serious and most consequential thus far’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said the third indictment of former President Trump is the “most serious and most consequential thus far” and “will stand as a stark reminder to generations of Americans that no one, including a president of the United States, is above the law.” 

“The insurrection on January 6, 2021 was one of the saddest and most infamous days in American history, personally orchestrated by Donald Trump and fueled by his insidious Big Lie in an attempt to undermine the 2020 election,” the Democratic leaders said in their joint statement Tuesday.

“In a deadly effort to overturn the will of the American people and block the peaceful transition of power, our nation’s Capitol—the very symbol and home of American patriotism and democracy—fell under attack to thousands of vicious and violent rioters.”

The lawmakers also said in their statement that the latest indictment provides details of how Trump’s efforts to overturn election results led to the violence that took place on Jan 6., saying that the former president tried to “defy democracy and overturn the will of the American people.”

Trump was indicted Tuesday by a Washington, D.C., grand jury on four charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Biden.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s 45-page indictment accuses Trump of trying to conduct a campaign to block the transfer of power. Smith alleged Trump was the director of a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and played a central role in an attempt to block the certification of votes on Jan. 6.

“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies — lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” Smith said in a news conference.