WASHINGTON – Donald Trump “laid the groundwork for his crimes” well before Election Day in 2020. He said “the details don’t matter” when told his election fraud claims would fail in court. And his response to learning that then-Vice President Mike Pence was taken to a secure location as rioters stormed the Capitol?
“So what?”
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That's according to a 165-page court filing from special counsel Jack Smith's team that paints a portrait of a president so desperate to cling to power that he “resorted to crimes" after losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
The filing unsealed Wednesday provides a glimpse into the evidence and testimony prosecutors plan to present if the case accusing Trump of an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election ever reaches trial.
The Republican presidential nominee has maintained that he did nothing illegal and has characterized the case as an attempt to hurt his bid to reclaim the White House in November. Trump's lawyers who have pushed to dismiss the case will now get a chance to respond in court to prosecutors' claims.
Here are some of the key passages from the filing:
Trump laid the groundwork for his scheme early, prosecutors say
Prosecutors allege Trump started laying the foundation for his illegal scheme well before election day, refusing to say in the months leading up to it whether he would accept the results and suggesting he could only lose if there was fraud.
Three days before the election, a Trump political adviser told a group of supporters that the then-president was “going to declare himself the winner” no matter the outcome," according to prosecutors.
“That doesn't mean he's the winner, he's just going to say he's the winner,” the adviser said.
Trump “did exactly that” immediately following the election, prosecutors said. Then, in the days following the election, Trump's allies “sought to create chaos” at polling places where votes were still being counted, Smith's team alleges.
When a campaign employee was told about a batch of votes in Detroit that appeared to be heavily in favor of President Joe Biden, the employee told a colleague to “find a reason” that wasn't right and “give me options to file litigation.”
When the colleague suggested there would be unrest, the campaign employee responded: “Make them riot” and “Do it!!!” according to the filing.
'The details don't matter,' Trump told an adviser
Prosecutors are trying to show that Trump knew his election fraud claims were bogus because many in his circle told him that there was no fraud and that he actually lost the election. Prosecutors say Trump disregarded those assurances just like he disregarded “dozens of court decisions that unanimously rejected his and his allies’ legal claims.”
In one key moment detailed in the filing, prosecutors say a lawyer who represented Trump during his first impeachment trial told Trump that his election fraud claims wouldn't survive in court. Trump responded: “The details don't matter,” according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say they will introduce evidence that shows Trump and his allies “made up figures from whole cloth” about election fraud, detailing how they repeatedly changed their baseless claims on the numbers of noncitizens voting in Arizona.
Details of Trump's relentless pressure on Pence
One of the most illuminating sections of the filing details the relentless pressure campaign that Trump and his allies enlisted against Pence, beginning well before Election Day and running up to the final minutes of the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of President Joe Biden’s win.
Even as most of the details of the former president’s futile attempts to get his running mate to reject Biden’s electoral votes have been well documented, Smith’s latest brief gives an even more granular look at the breakdown between the two men as prosecutors say one sought desperately to cling on to power and the other fought to maintain his unwavering fidelity to the Constitution.
When news organizations, including The Associated Press, called the election for Biden on Nov. 7, Pence saw it as an opportunity to “encourage” Trump “as a friend,” reminding him that he “took a dying political party and gave it a new lease on life," prosecutors wrote. A few days later, when Trump and his allies were still strategizing ways to overcome the defeat, Pence again reiterated that the next presidential election in 2024 was “not so far off.”
When Pence refused on Dec. 28 to support the various legal cases being pursued by Trump and his close allies in Congress, the filing states that Trump told his vice president that “hundreds of thousands” of people “are gonna hate your guts” and “people are gonna think you’re stupid.” He added, “You’re too honest.”
This went on for days, until the two men met in person one last time before Jan. 6. The meeting in the Oval Office on the eve of the certification is seen by prosecutors as one of Trump’s last efforts to encourage Pence privately to keep him in power, telling him once again that he had “the power to decertify,” the results. “When Pence was unmoved, the defendant threatened to criticize him publicly,” the filing states. “I’m gonna have to say you did a great disservice,” Trump said. Pence relayed this comment to a member of his team who saw it as a direct threat “to the point that he alerted Pence’s Secret Service detail.
‘So what?’ Trump said when told Pence was rushed to safety
As Trump's supporters began attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop the counting of the electoral votes, an aide rushed in to tell Trump that Pence had been taken to a secure location. The aide was hoping Trump would “take action to ensure Pence's safety,” prosecutors wrote. Instead, Trump's only response was, “So what?" prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors say they will present “forensic evidence” from Trump's cellphone and testimony from witnesses to show how Trump spent the afternoon of Jan. 6 on Twitter and watching TV coverage of the riot while his aides pressed him to make a public statement to quell the violence.
“Instead, the defendant refused repeatedly until his advisors gave up and left him alone in the dining room,” prosecutors wrote.
Alone in the dining room, Trump then sent a Tweet attacking Pence for not having the “courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify.”
A rioter with a bullhorn read Trump's Tweet about Pence to the crowd that was trying to enter the Capitol, prosecutors said. It was only after advisers again urged Trump to do something about the riot that he sent a Tweet encouraging his supporters to support law enforcement and “stay peaceful," prosecutors wrote.