'Most Serious, Most Sweeping' Indictment Against Trump: Professor

HEMPSTEAD, NY — Former president Donald Trump's third indictment was "fueled by lies," Special Counsel Jack Smith said Tuesday.

The 45-page document outlines Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election that would lead to the dramatic Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

"It's clearly the most serious and most sweeping of the indictments," James Sample, a Hofstra University constitutional law professor, told Patch.

Trying to not relinquish the seat of power after losing to President Biden, and losing in dozens of court cases, Sample said, this case goes to the heart of America.

"The facts involved pertain to one of the two most serious assaults on American democracy of the nation," he said.

Despite that, and especially compared to Smith's other cases against Trump, related to the classified documents brought to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office, Sample sees a more complicated conviction.

"It's the huge undertaking of thwarting American democracy. It's not a simple smash-and-grab at a convenience store," Sample said. "The flip side of that is, I suspect Jack Smith thinks that they have amassed such mountains of evidence that it would be irresponsible not to prosecute."

While Smith has laid out his examples of how Trump was the linchpin for staying in office, Trump's attorney John Lauro was quick to give a preview of their likely defense: "This is the first time that political speech has been criminalized in the history of the United States," Lauro told "CBS Mornings."

Lauro seems ready to use the First Amendment's Freedom of Speech, but Sample sees no merit in it.

"That takes desperation to new levels," he said.

Having said that, Trump has a stranglehold on the GOP. The latest New York Times/Siena poll, released this week before the new charges, has the 45th president at a 37-point lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the 2024 nomination. No other candidate has double digits.

Getting his party, if not his supporters, to draw a line in the sand appears the unsolved mystery as the race unfolds.

"Every single time that I've made a prediction that the base, or a significant portion of it, will abandon him, I've been wrong," Sample said. "It is staggering to me, that one of the two major parties in America remains fixated on an individual whose flaws are so severe."