Former President Donald Trump was indicted on Tuesday in connection with his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and federal prosecutors allege that six people aided him in his "criminal efforts."
Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. There are six co-conspirators listed in the indictment, though none were named or charged in the document. Prosecutors did provide descriptions of the individuals, though, and several media outlets have identified them based on this information and well-established facts of the case.
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The indictment lists "co-conspirator 2" as an attorney who "devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the vice president's ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election." This is John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who devised the fringe legal theory that former Vice President Mike Pence could block the election certification.
"Co-conspirator 3" is an attorney who "filed a lawsuit against the governor of Georgia" and whose claims of voter fraud were "embraced and publicly amplified" by Trump, despite him saying privately that she sounded "crazy." This is Sidney Powell, a lawyer who appeared multiple times on Fox News to claim without evidence that rigged voting machines were flipping Trump votes over to Biden. A lawsuit she filed against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Nov. 25, 2020, alleging that there was "massive election fraud" in the state, was dismissed less than a month later.
In the indictment, "co-conspirator 4" is described as a Justice Department official who "worked on civil matters and who, with [Trump], attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud." That is Jeffrey Clark, who embraced Trump's election fraud claims so much that Trump wanted to make him acting attorney general. According to testimony given before the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Clark came up with an idea to send officials in battleground states letters stating the Justice Department had "identified significant concerns" about the vote and they should send a slate of pro-Trump electors to Congress.
"Co-conspirator 5" is an attorney who is alleged to have "assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding." By cross-referencing quotes attributed to co-conspirator 5 with emails made public by the House Jan. 6 Committee report, it is clear this is Kenneth Chesebro, the first person to bring up the idea of sending fake slates of electors to Congress.
The identity of "co-conspirator 6" was unclear on Tuesday, as this individual's description — "a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding" — could be matched to several people close to Trump. The New York Times may have solved the mystery, reporting on Wednesday that the indictment revealed co-conspirator 6 sent co-conspirator 1 an email about attorneys in seven states who could help with the fraudulent elector scheme.
Boris Epshteyn, a strategic adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign, sent such an email to Giuliani in December 2020, which was reviewed by the Times. The newspaper cautioned that "the existence of the email from Mr. Epshteyn does not eliminate the possibility that someone else sent Mr. Giuliani a similar note."
Updated August 2, 2023: This article has been updated to reflect new developments.
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