Former US President Donald Trump faces charges of conspiracy to violate civil liberties in a capital storm case. Also, he would have attempted to obstruct the course of justice and hatch a conspiracy to defraud the government.

According to American correspondent David Hummelberg, the allegations are based on misapprehension by Republicans of false or suspicious voter turnouts, particularly in major cities. “In the city of Atlanta, for example, they went out of their way to invalidate as many votes as possible because of fraud,” says Hammelburg. But because black Americans lived in disproportionate numbers, according to special counsel Jack Smith, the main purpose was to have black votes declared invalid. That could be a civil liberties violation and a federal crime.’

If Trump is also found guilty of the other charges, a new trial is likely, although that is still far off, according to Hummelberg. “No case has been brought to life yet, this is just preparation for that,” he says. ‘That happens before what’s called a grand jury, in other words an inquest jury. They must decide whether there are sufficient indications that one or more offenses have been committed.’

Criminal case

Only then does a criminal trial proceed, which is set up with a new jury. Trump must be found guilty there. But if Jack Smith can finally prove conclusively that Trump tried to falsify the election results, we’re actually talking about an attempted conspiracy, a very serious crime. No doubt a long prison sentence.’

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Smith is considered a man with a mission, Hummelburg knows. So Smith is out of the debate, but for the facts. “For incontrovertible evidence, he says he sees no point in debating whether or not Trump’s speech was a call to insurrection,” Hummelberg concludes. “If you have witnesses in Trump’s inner circle who heard directly that he played an active role in that fraud, that helps you even more.”

Formal inquiries

So Smith systematically interviews people in the White House: relatives, close associates, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s most important advisers. “You can hear from that that Trump knows he’s losing and that he’s deliberately trying to swing states to send fake Republican voters to Washington.”