Trump's latest indictment echoes January 6 committee findings

Special counsel Jack Smith's criminal indictment appeared to be more than two and half years in the making, but the American public heard many of the key details of the case outlined in a series of hearings last year - as a well as an 800-page report - run by the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6 riot.

There are stark similarities between Smith's narrative of how former President Donald Trump - aided by his co-conspirators - allegedly orchestrated a plot to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, and the evidence underpinning a nearly identical conclusion presented by the House January 6 committee months ago.

As striking as it is, the four-count indictment handed up by the grand jury against Trump on Tuesday hews closely to the roadmap outline by the January 6 committee in its final report, which was released at the end of last year.

Three of the four counts included in the special counsel's indictment mirror charges that were recommended by the House committee.

The committee also specifically recommended prosecution of Trump himself and one of the former president's now unindicted co-conspirators - attorney John Eastman - who still could face legal peril as the special counsel probe continues.

Also name-checked in the referral section of the congressional panel's final report are also included in Smith's indictment as unindicted co-conspirators: Rudy Giuliani, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark and attorney Kenneth Chesebro.

"The fake elector plan emerged from a series of legal memoranda written by an outside legal advisor to the Trump Campaign: Kenneth Chesebro," the committee's final report states.