Revised Indictment Accuses Trump of Crimes in Plotting to Overturn 2020 Election
WASHINGTON — A revised indictment against former President Donald Trump unsealed in federal court Wednesday portrays him as knowingly engaging in criminal behavior to try to hang on to the presidency.
The new court filing was submitted by a Justice Department special prosecutor who is prosecuting Trump in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on charges of election interference for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith resubmitted the indictment to comply with a July 1 Supreme Court ruling that said presidents are immune from prosecution for their “official acts” but not their unofficial or personal acts.
Smith argues in the 165-page court filing that Trump’s lies to the public, election officials and his own vice president fell outside the scope of his authority, thereby representing personal actions that should make him criminally liable. He called his effort to overturn the election “private criminal conduct.”
“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” the filing said. “With private co-conspirators, the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost.”
When his lawsuits to change the election results failed, he turned to violence by trying to incite his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the new indictment says.
“The defendant also knew that he had only one last hope to prevent Biden’s certification as president: the large and angry crowd standing in front of him. So for more than an hour, the defendant delivered a speech designed to inflame his supporters and motivate them to march to the Capitol,” Smith wrote.
Some of the evidence against Trump arose from his dealings with then-Vice President Mike Pence, according to the court filing.
It says Trump refused to follow Pence’s advice to concede the election loss.
When Pence ignored Trump’s advice to help him oppose certification by Congress of the election in favor of Joe Biden, the then-vice president cited constitutional protocol.
Trump then posted on Twitter — now X — that Pence “didn’t have the courage” to overturn the election results.
When told that Jan. 6, 2021, rioters at the Capitol had compelled Pence to take refuge in a secure place, Trump told one of his aides, “So what?” according to the court filing.
The new indictment documents how Trump watched the riot on Fox News from the White House dining room but refused to intervene despite pleas from his aides and advisors.
It also uses testimony from an unnamed political adviser who said that three days before the November 2020 Election Day, Trump was already plotting how he would try to retain the presidency even if he lost.
The adviser is quoted in the filing describing Trump’s plan, saying, “He’s going to declare victory. That doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just going to say he’s the winner.”
He also planned to take advantage of weaknesses in the trustworthiness of mail-in ballots, the filing says.
“Trump’s going to take advantage of it. That’s our strategy,” the political adviser is quoted saying.
Another allegation in the filing said that after the election, Trump was speaking with his family while traveling on the presidential helicopter Marine One in a conversation overheard by a White House official unnamed in the indictment.
Trump reportedly told his family, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”
Trump called the court filing an example of “weaponization of government.”
Trump said the court filing and the judge’s decision to unseal it were intended to weaken his reelection campaign rather than to serve the interests of justice.
He posted on his social media site Truth Social, writing, “Democrats are weaponizing the Justice Department against me because they know I am winning and they are desperate to prop up their failing candidate, Kamala Harris.”
He also wrote, “The Democrat Party is guilty of the Worst Election Interference in American History.”
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