Former US president Donald Trump was indicted by the country's justice department for his efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election. The charges stem from Special Counsel Jack Smith's sprawling investigation into allegations of Trump seeking to reverse his loss to Biden.

Despite a dizzying and growing array of legal troubles, Trump has solidified his status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, according to public opinion polls.

Smith in a brief statement to reporters, placed the blame for the January 6, 2021 violence squarely on Trump.

"The attack on our nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies - lies by the defendant, targeted at obstructing the bedrock function of the US government," Smith said.

Here are the top four updates from the indictment against Donald Trump:

1. Donald Trump Lied Despite Being Warned BY Top Officials

The indictment noted that Trump continued to make false comments regarding the US election despite repeated warnings from high-ranking government officials.

2. Donald Trump Used Supporters To Fraudulently Alter Results

"The Defendant attempted to use a crowd of supporters that he had gathered in Washington, DC to pressure the Vice President to fraudulently alter the election results," the indictment noted. In a statement, the Trump campaign said he had always followed the law and characterised the indictment as a "persecution" reminiscent of Nazi Germany. "President Trump will not be deterred by disgraceful and unprecedented political targeting!" it added.

3. Donald Trump Was Aware That His Lies About The US Election Were False

The indictment lays out numerous examples of Trump's election falsehoods and notes that close advisers, including senior intelligence officials, told him repeatedly that the results were legitimate. "These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false," prosecutors wrote. hen the push to certify the fake electors failed, Trump sought to pressure Vice President Mike Pence not to allow certification of the election to go forward, and took advantage of the chaos outside the Capitol to do so, according to prosecutors.

4. Trump Made Several Attempts To Change US Election Result For Months

Trump had the right to legally contest the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, but as the process dragged on for months, his conduct become illegal.

Trump had a right "to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won" said prosecutors in the court documents. "He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election, and to file lawsuits — which he did. But shortly after the election, Trump also broke the law by pursuing illegal ways to overturn the election," the indictment noted.

The indictment also includes six unnamed co-conspirators who have not been charged. Based on the descriptions, they appear to include Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who called state lawmakers in the weeks following the 2020 election to pressure them not to certify their states' results; former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who tried to get himself installed as attorney general so he could launch voter fraud investigations in Georgia and other swing states; and attorney John Eastman, who advanced the erroneous legal theory that Pence could block the electoral certification.

(With inputs from Reuters)