Donald J. Trump

Case Summary

On Aug. 1, 2023, a federal grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump, alleging that he led a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and hold on to power. The indictment says that Trump knowingly spread “pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud,” which ultimately set in motion the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. "The attack on our nation's Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” said Special Counsel Jack Smith in a brief statement after the charges against Trump were unsealed. “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." Prosecutors allege that Trump knew that his election fraud claims were false. The indictment cites several statements from Republican allies of Trump, who told the then-president that there was no evidence of fraud that would change the outcome of the election; they included his Vice President Mike Pence, leaders of the Department of Justice, lawyers in the White House, and top staffers on the Trump presidential campaign. One senior Trump campaign advisor referred to some fraud claims spread by Trump and his allies as “conspiracy s*** beamed down from the mothership,” according to an email described in the indictment. Even as the Trump campaign’s legal challenges to the election results were repeatedly struck down in court, prosecutors allege that Trump and his allies pursued a pressure campaign against state election officials, state legislators, and officials in the U.S. Department of Justice to falsely declare that election fraud had tainted the vote and Trump had actually won. Around that same time, Trump also allegedly pursued a scheme to submit alternate or “fake” electoral college electors as a pretext to have Vice President Pence block the certification of the electoral college vote in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. When Pence refused to cooperate in the plan, Trump allegedly told him “you’re too honest.” The criminal conspiracy as described in the indictment continued even after the riot began on Jan. 6, as Trump and his allies attempted to exploit the violence to put additional pressure on members of Congress to delay or block the electoral college certification. Those efforts ultimately failed. Before becoming president of the United States, Trump was a businessman and star of reality television. He is the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice and the only former president to face federal criminal charges.

Case History

Trump pleaded Not Guilty to all charges. On 11/25/2024, on the Government’s Motion, the Court dismissed the operative superseding indictment without prejudice. On 12/6/2024, the court stated "in the interest of clarifying that there are no remaining counts against Defendant and that this case is fully closed, the Government’s unopposed Supplement to its Motion to Dismiss is hereby GRANTED, and the original Indictment is likewise DISMISSED without prejudice."

Sources

• Primary Documentation
  NPR Jan. 6 Defendant DatabaseNPR
• Primary Documentation
  Underlying court recordCourt record linked by NPR

Case summary, charges, procedural updates and image are drawn from the NPR Jan. 6 archive snapshot dated 2026-09-25 unless otherwise indicated.