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The federal government’s election-subversion case against Donald Trump, which was stalled for months pending the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity, has shown new signs of life in recent months. On Wednesday, Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will decide which parts of the case can proceed to trial, unsealed a substantial filing from Special Counsel Jack Smith that lays out his office’s evidence against Donald Trump.
In the 165-page filing, Smith writes that Trump “pursued multiple criminal means” to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential-election results, including pushing false claims of electoral fraud, pressuring of his running mate, Mike Pence, to block the election’s certification, and provoking a mob of his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Though the Supreme Court ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution for actions they take in a clearly official capacity, Smith writes that Trump’s “scheme was fundamentally a private one.”
The filing, which partially redacts the names of some of the figures involved, is laid out in four sections that covers the government’s case as well as explanations as to how the government’s evidence doesn’t run afoul of the Supreme Court’s ruling. The broad strokes of the motion treads familiar ground for those who have followed the alleged scheme closely, but Smith’s filing contains some new details about the plot and what the Justice Department intends to present at trial. Here are some of the most interesting moments.
The public estrangement between Trump and Pence has been well-documented. But Smith’s motion provided more detail into their gradual falling-out, describing the former president’s frequent attempts to sway his running mate into using his ceremonial role in the certification process to halt the proceedings as well as Pence’s consistent rebuffing of his words.
Trump made his last overture to Pence on January 6 before his planned Stop the Steal speech at The Ellipse in Washington, D.C. The former vice president said once again that he lacked authority to intervene and told Trump that he planned to issue a statement saying as much prior to the vote certification. Per the motion, Trump was “incensed” and decided to “re-insert into his Campaign speech at the Ellipse remarks targeting Pence for his refusal to misuse his role in the certification.” Trump would go on to tell his supporters that Pence still had a chance to act, despite knowing his final decision, and relayed a thinly-veiled threat. “Mike Pence, I hope you’re gonna stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country,” he said at the rally. “And if you’re not, I’m gonna be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories.”
The filing alleges that Trump, after riling up his supporters at the Ellipse, retired to the White House dining room where he watched television coverage of the attack on the Capitol. At 2:24 p.m., Trump sent a notorious tweet from his personal account, saying that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done,” in reference to his refusal to disrupt the certification process. Afterward, the Secret Service moved Pence from the Capitol to a secure location.
In one striking moment, the motion describes Trump aide receiving a call informing him that Pence had been evacuated from the Capitol after it had been breached by rioters. When the aide delivered the news to Trump in the White House dining room, he responded, “So what?”
Prosecutors describe an interaction between Trump and lawyer Sidney Powell, who gained notoriety for her more off-the-wall theories on election fraud. Reportedly, Trump put Powell on speaker during a phone call, muted himself, then “mocked and laughed” at her to the others listening in, calling her assertions “crazy.”
Though Trump seemed to have a low opinion of Powell, he continued to promote her claims on social media.
In addition to details about how the alleged scheme unfolded, the prosecution also gave a sense of the evidence and witnesses they intended to present at trial. Smith’s team has pointed to Trump’s initial lack of action in the wake of the riot as an indication of his support for the incident. Per the filing, an FBI forensic examiner from the agency’s computer analysis response team will be able to testify to the apps on Trump’s phone and “can describe the activity occurring on the phone throughout the afternoon of January 6.” Smith’s teams says data from the phone shows that Trump was on his phone, particularly on the Twitter app, as the riot continued unabated for hours.
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