On Tuesday, the grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia returned a 45-page, 130-count indictment against former President Donald J. Trump, charging him with four federal 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 (a civil rights enforcement provision, known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, originally codified in 1870 to protect the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment rights of Black citizens).

Atlanta attorney Mike Kenny. Courtesy photo Atlanta attorney Mike Kenny. (Courtesy photo)

The three conspiracy counts will enable Special Counsel Jack Smith to introduce a wide swath of evidence at trial. The indictment—paragraph 2—articulates a compelling and readily understandable theory of the case. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and then, for the following two months, illegally schemed to stay in power by “spread[ing] lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he has actually won. These lies were false, and [Trump] knew they were false.”