'Our investigation continues': Jack Smith hints at future election charges as he indicts Trump

Special counsel Jack Smith staged a rare public announcement on Tuesday evening, following the indictment of former President Donald Trump in his investigation of the January 6 attack and the preceding plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Trump has been charged with four offenses, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, two counts of witness tampering, and conspiracy against rights.

"The attack on our nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy," said Smith, who has already charged the former president in a separate case involving stolen classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. "It is described in the indictment as fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation's process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election."

"The men and women of law enforcement who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 are heroes," said Smith. "They are patriots and they are the very best of us. They did not just defend a building with people sheltering in it, they put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a people. They defended the very institutions and principles that define the United States."

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Smith noted that over 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the actual act of storming the Capitol, and said that the indictment of Trump is "consistent with that commitment" to hold those who are responsible for the attack accountable for their actions.

He closed out by vowing to seek a swift trial, and stating that "our investigation of other individuals continues."