THE SQUIZ
‘Unprecedented’ is a word that’s getting regular use in US politics at the moment as former President Donald Trump added new charges to the list – this time over moves to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Federal prosecutors have him in their sights on 4 counts, and the court paperwork details the extraordinary pressure prosecutors say he put on officials in 7 states to try to change election results.

WHAT EXACTLY DOES THIS RELATE TO?
In a nutshell, it’s about Trump’s claims the 2020 election was “stolen” and everything he did to try to stay in power and not hand over the presidency to the Democrats and Joe Biden. For months now, a grand jury has been hearing evidence from staff and officials, all the way up to former Vice President Mike Pence, about Trump’s actions between November 2020 (starting on election night) to early 2021 and those 6 January riots on Capitol Hill while Congress was formalising the election results. Trump is accused of conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiring against people’s civil right to have their vote counted. Trump called the charges “fake”, and US President Joe Biden didn’t comment – he went to see Oppenheimer instead…

GOT IT. SO WHERE TO FROM HERE?
So Trump is set to appear in court on Thursday (US time), and it’s expected to be a brief affair. But you can bet his lawyers will be gearing up because one of the charges – conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding – carries a jail sentence of up to 20 years. And remember, Trump’s already set to stand trial in New York over a case stemming from payments to cover up a possible scandal in 2016. And there’s another court date coming up in Florida over classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But none of this appears to be hurting his chances of having another shot at becoming president – the latest polls have him crushing his Republican rivals in the race for the party’s nomination.