New details about Trump’s plot to overthrow the election should be a warning to Americans this November
When an assistant gives Donald Trump told him that his vice president’s life was in danger during the January 6, 2021 riots, he responded with two words: “So what?”
That’s just one of the damning details contained in the legal brief Jack Smith filed a lawsuit against the former president in an attempt to overturn the election. Unsealed Wednesday, redacted 165-document provides the fullest picture yet of the evidence the special counsel has gathered against Trump — and should serve as a warning to American voters about the extraordinary danger he poses to democracy if he assumed the presidency again. “As a candidate, the defendant used deception to target every phase of the election process,” Smith wrote.
In the filing, Smith argued not only that Trump “resorted to crime to try to stay in office” after losing. Joe Biden but “his plan was a private criminal endeavor” – and therefore not covered up by Shocking verdict of the Supreme Court over the summer granted presidents “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions” taken as part of their official duties. “Defendant acted as a candidate for re-election, not as President,” Smith wrote. Smith also offered some damning, previously unreported details about actions Trump took after the 2020 election—and specifically on January 6—as part of the effort overturned his results. Collectively, they reveal a man who seemed to know he had lost, but continued to push lies about election fraud that he knew were false and even “crazy,” as he we were supposed to talk about lawyers. by Sidney Powell claim. According to Smith, “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose the election,” Trump told family members after his defeat in November. “You still have to fight like hell.”
Smith also shed light on actions taken by Trump’s allies, including Rudy Giulianiwhose efforts to promote a sham election scheme in Michigan may have failed because of him allegedly texted the resolution to the wrong numberand an unidentified campaign official who allegedly encouraged chaos at a vote-counting center in Detroit in 2020. “Make them riot,” the co-conspirator said, according to the filing profile.
Steven CheungTrump campaign spokesman, responded to the filing with typical belligerence, describing the case as “unconstitutional” and “partisan.” Trump, meanwhile, got mad, post on social media that the unsealed filing was an attempt by a rival Kamala Harris to “Interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election.” In a NewsNation interview the following Wednesday, he declared“This is a weaponization of the government.”
Smith’s case — one of four felony prosecutions against the former president, who was convicted on 34 counts in New York — will not be heard before November’s election, as a result of this case could decide whether Trump is charged with a crime. ever tried for his attempt to overthrow democracy in 2020. But the records unsealed Wednesday will give voters even more evidence to form their verdict on him next month.
