Former US President Donald Trump has been criminally charged in a federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 White House election result.
He is accused of four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.
The indictment caps an inquiry into events surrounding the riot two-and-a-half years ago at the US Capitol.
Mr Trump, 77, who is running for president again, denies wrongdoing.
He is already charged in two other cases: with mishandling classified files and over a porn star’s hush-money payment.
The investigation has focused on Mr Trump’s actions in the two-month period between his election loss and the riot in Washington DC, where supporters of his stormed Congress as lawmakers certified Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory.
The man leading the inquiry, US justice department-appointed special counsel Jack Smith, said on Tuesday evening: “The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.
“As described in the indictment it was fuelled by lies.”
Mr Smith wrapped up his brief statement by pledging to seek “a speedy trial”, while emphasising that the defendant “must be assumed innocent until proven guilty”.
Mr Trump is due to appear in court on Thursday in Washington DC.
The 45-page indictment lists six unnamed co-conspirators: four lawyers, a justice department official and a political consultant.
The court document accuses Mr Trump of a “conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud and deceit”.
About Mr Trump’s allegations of voter fraud, prosecutors say: “These claims were false and the defendant knew that they were false.”
They also say that after failing to convince Vice-President Mike Pence to attempt to block the congressional certification of Mr Biden as president, Mr Trump continued – including on the day of the riot – to try to cling to power.
“As violence ensued, the Defendant and co-conspirators exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims.”
The indictment also lists the numerous US officials and senior Trump campaign workers who, it says, informed the outgoing president that he had lost and that there was no evidence of voter fraud.
Mr Trump is currently the frontrunner in the Republican party’s contest to pick its next presidential candidate. The winner will challenge the Democratic nominee, probably 80-year-old President Biden, in November 2024.