Special counsel Jack Smith provided new details about the sweeping and “increasingly desperate” efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election defeat, in a blockbuster court filing Wednesday seeking to defend Smith’s lawsuit against Trump following Supreme Court immunity in July. decision.
Trump intentionally lied to the public, state election officials and his own vice president in an attempt to cling to power after losing the election, while privately calling some election fraud claims ‘crazy’ , prosecutors said in the 165-page document. deposit.
“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes in an attempt to remain in office,” the filing states. “With private accomplices, the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost.”
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When Trump’s efforts to overturn the election through lawsuits and fraudulent voters failed to change the outcome of the election, prosecutors say the former president instigated violence, prosecutors describing Trump as directly responsible for “the powder keg he deliberately lit on January 6.”
“The defendant also knew that he had only one last hope to prevent the certification of Biden as president: the large, angry crowd standing before him. So, for more than an hour, the defendant delivered a speech intended to ignite his supporters and motivate them to march to the Capitol,” Smith wrote.
The lengthy filing – which includes an 80-page summary of evidence collected by investigators – describes several instances in which Trump allegedly heard from advisers who refuted his claims, while continuing to spread his claims of outcome-determining election fraud, they said. prosecutors. .
“It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell,” Trump allegedly told family members after the 2020 election, according to the filing.
According to prosecutors, Trump “laid the groundwork for his crimes well before” Election Day, including sowing doubt among his supporters and planning to declare victory immediately, despite several advisers telling him it was unlikely the results are finalized on election day.
Prosecutors say Trump and his allies “sought to sow chaos” at polling locations – including one instance where a campaign worker encouraged a colleague to “cause a riot” during an ongoing vote count at Detroit – which the former president later used to support his claims of election fraud.
“The common thread running through these efforts was deception: the defendant’s and his co-conspirators’ knowingly false allegations regarding election fraud,” the filing states.
In addition to describing instances where Trump was directly corrected on his election fraud claims, the filing says Trump privately called election fraud claims made by his lawyer Sidney Powell “crazy” — despite the use of similar arguments to cast doubt on legitimacy. of the election, prosecutors say.
Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he engaged in a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to stay in power. Wednesday’s filing comes at a pivotal moment in the case, as U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is set to begin reviewing whether any of the allegations included in the government’s filing are protected by the presidential immunity after the Supreme Court ruled in a blockbuster decision that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts performed while in office.
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In August, Smith filed a simplified indictment that removed allegations that may have been considered official acts — including Trump’s interactions with Justice Department officials to interfere with the election — while continuing to charge the former president with the same four criminal charges he initially had. confronted. Last week, Smith filed a sealed brief seeking justification for the superseded indictment, then sought to file a redacted version for public release.
Trump’s lawyers objected to Wednesday’s lengthy filing — which they described as “amounting to a premature and inappropriate report by the special counsel” — and argued that public disclosure of the allegations would inappropriately influence the election and would violate Department of Justice policies. Judge Chutkan – who has long said the election plays no role in her decision-making – ordered the case made public on Wednesday.
In justifying his case against Trump, Smith alleged that Trump had acted as an office seeker rather than an office holder when he committed crimes, and that he “must be tried for his private crimes as would n ‘any other citizen’.
“Although the defendant was the incumbent president during the incriminated plots, his plan was fundamentally private,” the filing said Wednesday.
Special prosecutor’s explosive filing includes new allegations about Trump’s ‘increasingly desperate’ efforts to overturn election, originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
