Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
As the Justice Department’s special prosecutor prepares to indict former President Donald Trump, all signs point to criminal charges unseen in American history: defrauding the nation with fake electors to sway the 2020 election, obstructing Congress to stop it from certifying votes, and inciting an insurrection.
On Tuesday, Trump claimed he was singled out in a target letter by Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith—a strong indication that an indictment could be weeks away.
In the two years since the former president’s failed coup, some of the nation’s top legal minds have analyzed how a federal indictment would read. Their conclusions, laid out in various legal memos and essays, all generally point to the same end: Prosecutors will rely on powerful criminal charges, many of which date back from the last time the nation faced an existential crisis during the American Civil War some 160 years ago.