Special Counsel Jack Smith has provided new, detailed allegations in a court filing on Wednesday, accusing former President Donald Trump of undertaking increasingly desperate efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The filing, made in response to the Supreme Court's July ruling on presidential immunity, outlines how Trump and his allies engaged in multiple schemes to cling to power, even after Trump privately acknowledged that some of the claims of election fraud were baseless.
In the 165-page filing, prosecutors describe Trump's alleged involvement in several illegal actions, including lying to state election officials, deceiving the public, and coercing his own vice president in an attempt to reverse the election outcome. According to the filing, Trump's efforts culminated in the January 6 Capitol riot, which prosecutors argue he "purposely ignited." The document emphasizes that Trump's bid to stay in office despite losing the election led to a series of "increasingly desperate" actions, including urging supporters to storm the Capitol after his legal attempts to challenge the election results failed.
"When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office," the filing reads. Smith's team contends that Trump conspired with private co-conspirators to overturn the election results in seven states where he lost to President Joe Biden. One of the filing's most explosive claims is that Trump personally acknowledged some of the election fraud claims were unfounded, calling them "crazy" in private conversations, but continued to push the falsehoods publicly.
The filing also includes an 80-page summary of evidence gathered by investigators, highlighting the moments when Trump was warned by his own advisers that his fraud allegations were not credible. Despite this, the former president allegedly maintained his narrative of widespread election fraud, encouraging supporters to "fight like hell." According to the court documents, Trump told his family members after the 2020 election, "It doesn't matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell."
Trump's legal team immediately criticized the release of the filing. His spokesperson, Steven Cheung, called the case a "partisan, Unconstitutional Witch Hunt" and argued that the filing should be dismissed. In response, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, dismissed the defense's accusations of political bias. She described the defense's claims of partisan misconduct as unfounded, noting that they failed to present any substantial evidence to support such accusations.
The case hinges on the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity, which granted Trump broad protections for official acts undertaken while in office. However, Smith's filing argues that Trump's actions related to the 2020 election were not official duties but rather personal efforts to retain power. "Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one," Smith wrote in the court documents.
Prosecutors further alleged that Trump and his allies tried to exploit the violence on January 6 to delay the certification of the election. The filing includes new claims that Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, made efforts to encourage senators to object to the certification while the Capitol was under siege. Prosecutors argue that these actions were part of a broader plan to subvert the democratic process.
The court document also suggests that Trump laid the groundwork for his post-election efforts well before Election Day. According to prosecutors, Trump began sowing doubts about the legitimacy of the electoral process months before November 2020, preparing the narrative that he would declare victory regardless of the actual outcome. As part of this strategy, Trump and his campaign allegedly sought to create chaos at polling locations, particularly in Democratic strongholds like Detroit, Michigan, where large numbers of mail-in ballots were counted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The legal battle is expected to intensify in the coming months. Trump's defense team is pushing to keep certain evidence under wraps, arguing that its public release could unduly influence the upcoming election. However, Judge Chutkan has signaled that the election timing does not impact her rulings and has ordered the redacted filing to be made public.
