The Indictments Are Only a Snapshot of Trump’s Conspiracy Against Democracy
Though the indictments only charge Trump with conspiring to illegally overturn the results after Election Day, the reality is that he started much earlier.

As the founder of Democracy Docket and Partner at Elias Law Group, Marc Elias is a nationally recognized authority in voting rights, redistricting and law. In 2020, Marc led the historic legal effort to protect voting rights, winning over 60 lawsuits against the GOP’s efforts to suppress the vote. As Republicans continue to mount aggressive challenges to voting, Marc continues to fight back in court and on Twitter. Fighting for democracy by his side is Marc’s Portuguese Water Dog named Bode.
Though the indictments only charge Trump with conspiring to illegally overturn the results after Election Day, the reality is that he started much earlier.
There is no question that Trump is the ultimate villain of the Jan. 6 insurrection. But he didn’t act alone.
Ten years ago, in his landmark opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, Chief Justice John Roberts promised that “our country has changed.”
Unable to attract the support of a majority of eligible voters, Republicans are left to try to rig the voting rules and exploit election loopholes.
We cannot let the focus on this one case, as important as it was, obscure the fact that threats to our democracy come in many forms.
As a voting rights lawyer, I babysit Republican lawsuits because democracy deserves the best defense of voting rights.
I believed that Roberts knew better until I read his last words of the term in which he blamed the dissent for the Court’s current predicament.
Writing for a six-justice majority, Chief Justice John Roberts firmly rejected the so-called independent state legislature theory.
Trump is convinced that his entire future hinges on the results of the 2024 election: his legacy, his stature and, most importantly, his personal liberty.
Ten years after Chief Justice John Roberts struck down Section 5 in Shelby County, he spared a different critical provision of the Voting Rights Act.