\n\n“Is it illegal to try to steal a presidential election?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Special counsel Jack Smith\u2019s indictment of Donald Trump<\/a>..holds that the answer is yes. Trump\u2019s attempt to flip the results after the 2020 election<\/a>, well before the events of January 6, Smith argues, amounted to a criminal conspiracy that violated three federal laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But throughout the history of this investigation, many other officials seemed to think the answer was no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For about a year after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the Justice Department\u2019s attention was overwhelmingly focused on that attack itself, not on Trump\u2019s two-month attempt to change the election results beforehand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of Trump\u2019s pre-January 6 actions that Smith cites in his indictment \u2014 such as his lobbying of swing state legislators<\/a>, his organizing of \u201calternate\u201d elector<\/a> slates in key states, and his pressuring of Vice President Mike Pence<\/a> \u2014 unfolded at least partly in plain sight or were reported by journalists at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout most and perhaps all of 2021, none of that seems to have been the focus of an investigation by the Justice Department, and in fact, proposals to investigate them were reportedly rejected by DOJ or FBI officials<\/a>. There wasn\u2019t a consensus then that these actions were actually criminal \u2014 many believed that though Trump\u2019s known conduct may have been unethical and dangerous to democracy, it didn\u2019t necessarily violate specific laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, though, Smith argues the president and his allies were engaged in a criminal conspiracy. The January 6 attack itself plays a relatively more limited role in Smith\u2019s indictment \u2014 the main crime, he\u2019s effectively arguing, was Trump\u2019s whole lengthy effort to overturn Biden\u2019s win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question of how and why the DOJ shifted so thoroughly on this topic is complicated, and still may not be fully understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But one way to understand the new indictment is that it\u2019s an effort to draw a bright line around Trump\u2019s actions, to make clear that nothing like this should happen again \u2014 from him, or anyone else.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n