WASHINGTON DC, USA — In a court filing on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, special counsel Jack Smith’s team argued that former President Donald Trump acted as a private candidate, not president when he sought to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
The filing revealed new details of the alleged scheme, including claims that Trump knew his false assertions about the election were lies and spread them to stay in power.
Smith’s team alleges that, even as officers were being assaulted at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump was focused on social media.
FBI analysis of his phone activity shows he was scrolling Twitter (now X) throughout the day after his speech at the Ellipse, where he urged supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn the election results.
“The phone’s activity logs show that the defendant was using his phone, and in particular, using the Twitter application, consistently throughout the day after he returned from the Ellipse speech,” the filing reads.
Pence Testimony and Private Discussions
The special counsel’s office also plans to present testimony from former Vice President Mike Pence, highlighting private conversations between the two running mates.
Pence reportedly tried to convince Trump to accept the lawful election results, even suggesting a “face-saving option” during a November 12 lunch. He told Trump to “don’t concede but recognise process is over.”
One of the most striking details in the filing was Trump’s alleged response when he learned that Pence had been rushed to a secure location during the January 6 attack after refusing to assist in overturning the election.
Trump reportedly replied with two words: “So what?”
The filing also includes testimony from an unnamed assistant to the president who overheard Trump telling family members aboard Marine One after the election, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”
Encouraging Violence in Detroit
Smith’s filing elaborates on previous claims that a member of Trump’s campaign encouraged rioting at the TCF Center in Detroit, where a pro-Trump mob attempted to stop the vote count in America’s largest majority-Black city on November 4, 2020.
In a newly revealed text message, an unnamed campaign employee urged a colleague, “Make them riot. Do it!!!”
Trump’s Response to Filing
In response to the new allegations, Trump downplayed the details, saying in an interview with NewsNation, “It’s nothing new in there, by the way, nothing new.”
“They rigged the election. I didn’t rig the election,” Trump insisted.
“They should have never allowed the information to be, to come before the public. But they did that because they want to hurt you with the election. It’s pure election interference.”
Private Crimes and Public Office
The filing is part of the ongoing federal election interference case against Trump.
Smith’s team argued that while Trump may have had immunity for some actions as president, he must “stand trial for his private crimes as would any other citizen.”
This follows a federal grand jury’s superseding indictment against Trump in August, which adjusted Smith’s case to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that limited the use of Trump’s official acts in the prosecution.
Smith’s team contends that Trump “resorted to crimes to try to stay in office” after his loss and coordinated with a group of private co-conspirators to disrupt the election process.
They allege Trump pursued “multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted.”
Trump’s Planned Declaration of Victory
The filing also asserts that Trump was informed that the election night results would be incomplete due to mail-in ballots, which were expected to favour Joe Biden.
However, Trump allegedly told his advisers that he “would simply declare victory before all the ballots were counted and a winner was projected.”
Smith’s team says they plan to demonstrate at trial that Trump and his co-conspirators knowingly spread false information, including fabricated figures regarding noncitizen voters in Arizona.
The prosecution argues that Trump engaged in a “deliberate disregard for the truth” in his efforts to undermine the 2020 election results.
As the trial approaches, Trump’s legal team continues to reject the allegations, while Smith’s team insists they will prove a pattern of deception and fraud aimed at subverting the democratic process.
