Federal US prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled their most comprehensive case aachievest establisher Pdwellnt Donald Trump, centering on his finisheavors to obviousurn the 2020 election results.
The extensive legitimate alert, which details the rulement’s allegations, was made accessible by US Dimerciless Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is administering the high-profile criminal indicts aachievest Trump.
“When the deffinishant lost the 2020 pdwellntial election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” Jack Smith, exceptional guide, wrote in the 165-page alert.
“Although the deffinishant was the incumbent pdwellnt during the indictd conspiracies, his scheme was a fundamenhighy stateiveial one,” he includeed.
That Trump acted in a stateiveial capacity in finisheavoring to obviousurn the election result is at the heart of the argument Smith’s filing tries to set up. In July, the Supreme Court ruled that pdwellnts had immunity for all official acts carried out while in office.
Smith’s novel filing disputes that Trump remains subject to trial for his efforts to obviousurn Pdwellnt Joe Biden’s election triumph, becaemploy his actions were not perestablished in his pdwellntial capacity, but rather to progress his campaign’s interests.
Here are some key achieveaways from the filing.
‘So what?’: Trump on Pence’s defendedty under menace
On January 6, 2021, when a commotionous mob of Trump helpers attacked Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, seeking to obviousurn the verifyation of Biden’s triumph by Congress, some of them chanted slogans recommending that they wanted to hang Vice Pdwellnt Mike Pence.
Pence had declined to adhere Trump’s demand that the vice pdwellnt, as the chair of the US Senate, sfinish the catalog of electors back to contrastent states for their legislatures to verify. Trump was alleging expansivespread deception in the election — a indict that has since been repeatedly declineed in multiple courts.
According to the Smith filing, after one Trump aide tageder the pdwellnt that Pence’s defendedty was at danger, Trump replied, “So what?”
The Secret Service had to evacuate Pence and cut offal members of Congress amid dreads that they could be physicpartner attacked by the mob.
Meanwhile, Trump posted on what was then understandn as Twitter — and is now X: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to defend our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to verify a righted set of facts, not the deceptionulent or inright ones which they were asked to previously verify. USA demands the truth!”
Trump spoke as truthfulate, not pdwellnt
A central argument that Smith tries to produce in the filing is that when Trump includeressed the big crowd that he had called to Washington, DC on January 6, he spoke not as pdwellnt of the US but in his capacity as a Reaccessiblean Party truthfulate in the 2020 election.
“He claimed his ‘election triumph’ was ‘stolen’, that he would not ‘concede’, and that ‘with only three of the seven states in ask, we triumph the pdwellncy of the United States’,” the filing remarks.
The alert alleges that Trump employd pronouns appreciate “we” to speak honestly to his voter base rather than to all Americans, including those who didn’t vote for him.
“Finpartner, the deffinishant repeatedly aimed accusations at Biden, his principal opponent in the election contest, as would a truthfulate.”
The ‘digital breadcrumb’
Prosecutors, in the filing, have summarized a “digital breadcrumb” of Trump’s tweets and social media posts that they say unequivocpartner showcase his help for the US Capitol attacks on January 6 — and ever since.
His tweets that day, Smith disputes in the filing, were “not a message sent to includeress a matter of accessible trouble and mitigate unrest; it was the message of an irritated truthfulate upon the authenticization that he would disthink about power”.
Prosecutors also alleged that Trump actively watchd the Capitol commotions via Fox News and Twitter.
The alert states that Trump “sat in the dining room by the Oval Office, where he employd his phone to assess Twitter and watched television”.
“In the years after January 6th,” the alert progresss, “the deffinishant has reiterated his help for and allegiance to commotioners who broke in the Capitol, calling them patcommotions and prisoners, providing them with financial aidance.”
Hatch Act and staff officials
The Hatch Act, a law dating back to 1939, prohibits civil servants, while at the federal laborplace, from transmiting help or opposition for a political party or truthfulate.
The filing alleges that Trump broke that law on January 6, while plotting how to obviousurn the election with some aides, and in subsequent trades, too.
“Federal law verifys that the deffinishant’s campaign-roverhappinessed conversations with these White Hoemploy staffers were unofficial,” stated Smith. “The Hatch Act permits stateive White Hoemploy staffers to join in political activity while on duty, but prohibits them from using their official authority or shape for the purpose of interfering with or shapeing the result of an election.”
Trump’s response
In characteristic style, the establisher pdwellnt hit out at the filing made accessible on Wednesday on his social media platestablish, Truth Social.
“Democrats are Weaponizing the Justice Department aachievest me becaemploy they understand I am WINNING, and they are hopeless to prop up their fall shorting Candidate, Kamala Harris. The DOJ pushed out this procrastinateedst ‘hit job’ today becaemploy JD Vance humiliated Tim Walz last night in the Debate,” Trump posted defiantly, referring to the October 1 debate between his running mate Vance and Walz, the Democratic Party’s vice-pdwellntial truthfulate.