Following Donald Trump’s indictment for his involvement with the January 6th insurrection, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington President Noah Bookbinder, a former federal prosecutor, released the following statement:

“The charges leveled against Donald Trump today are the most significant he has yet faced because they address the most serious offense he committed: trying to block the peaceful transfer of power and keep himself in office despite losing the 2020 election by inciting a violent insurrection. Had he succeeded, it would have effectively ended our almost two and a half century experiment in democratic self-governance.

Jack Smith’s indictment cuts through Trump’s propaganda to explicitly demonstrate not just the facts, but the stakes of this case. Holding Trump accountable for his crimes pulls our democracy back from the precipice and prevents his criminal attempt to overturn an election from being forgotten or normalized. Nothing could be more important for the future of America.”