A day later, Mr Trump was indicted for a third time for a scheme to cheat American voters out of their votes being properly counted.

On Tuesday, 1 August, the US Department of Justice’s, Special Counsel Jack Smith made public a 45-page indictment revealing details of the charges against Mr Trump.

He has been indicted for “conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding,” said Mr Smith at a press conference in Washington, DC, at the Department of Justice (DOJ), and urged everyone to read the document in full.

What does this indictment mean? The underlying charges in the indictment document are that Mr Trump allegedly tried to invalidate the election, which not only defrauds the US voters of their vote, but also defrauds the US government of the ability to count the votes, and allegedly attempted to disrupt the US government of its ability to hold a free and fair election. The charges point to the allegation that Mr Trump not only lied, but that he knew he was lying, and further, that he took steps to overturn the 2020 election.

Mr Smith described Mr Trump’s 6 January 2021 attempts to overturn the 2020 US election as an “unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.” All Mr Trump’s actions were lies, he said.

He emphasized, that this indictment is still “only an allegation and that the defendant must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” he said. Mr Smith’s office is hoping to conduct a speedy trial.

Mr Trump’s attorney John Lauro said in a televised interview on CNN on Tuesday night that it is “an effort to not only criminalize, but also to censor free speech” Mr Trump makes. Mr Trump’s campaign has called this indictment a “witch hunt.”

The former president has consistently asserted that the government has been weaponized against him. Currently, there is no evidence to support this assertion. But could he be trying to stay out of court until the election?

Another question is: How will this indictment affect his candidacy in the Republican Party? In the Republican field, Mr Trump is the number one favourite among Republican voters. He has raised more money than President Biden. By the end of June, Mr Trump had $22.5 million in cash on hand. “Trump’s campaign raised more money around federal indictment than presidential announcement,” according to Open Secrets.

The Sienna College Research Institute Director Don Levy said, “The first national New York Times/Siena Poll for the 2024 election cycle finds President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump locked in a 43-43% tie among registered voters.” Which means that, while Mr Trump has been doing exceedingly well in the primary Republican race, it remains to be seen how he will fair in the general election.

She said, “the accumulation of these [indictments], the increasing severity of the indictments” has not yet begun chipping away at support for Mr Trump as a presidential candidate for Republicans voters. The indictments might even make his likely voters support him more.