Special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday provided additional details on former President Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, offering a plan to disprove what he called Trump’s false claims about election fraud and fight against the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
The 165-page motion, unsealed Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, showcased Trump’s and his associates’ efforts to dispute the election results, painting the former president and his deputies as desperate and dishonest at times.
It included, for example, new revelations about plans by a 2020 Trump campaign employee and alleged co-conspirator to incite chaos at a ballot-processing center in Detroit. According to one section of the lengthy filing, the Trump campaign employee allegedly aimed to disrupt operations by urging a “riot” during a conversation at Detroit’s TCF Center, a key site for vote counting in Michigan.
The motion marked Smith’s only major opportunity before the election to make the case to the public that Trump is guilty of the election-interference charges, although Chutkan may also unseal some exhibits in the coming weeks.
Chutkan, for her part, quickly drew criticism for choosing to unseal the behemoth filing so close to the 2024 election, in which Trump is the Republican presidential candidate.
“Judge Chutkin, as expected, has ordered the release of the Smith filing weeks before the election. Smith fought unsuccessfully to try Trump before the election but has now been allowed to release this scathing report,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote on X. “Smith was clearly eager to get this out before the public despite Justice Department policies that encourage prosecutors to avoid acts that would be viewed as trying to influence an election.”
Chutkan said she had to balance privacy concerns with the public’s right to access court proceedings. The public version of the document contained light redactions of names and sources of information, but Smith included unredacted context that often helped to identify the individuals. Trump had called for more redactions ahead of the document’s release, saying Smith was always deeply concerned about the privacy of people involved in court cases until this particular filing.
“Now that public disclosure serves their politically motivated mission, the Special Counsel’s Office takes a different view,” Trump’s attorneys had argued.
Trump’s campaign criticized the filing on Thursday, saying it contained false information and criticizing the timing of its release.
“The release of the falsehood-ridden, Unconstitutional J6 brief immediately following Tim Walz’s disastrous debate performance is another obvious attempt by the Harris-Biden regime to undermine American Democracy and interfere in this election,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.
Prosecutors alleged in the filing that Trump’s goal was to foment unrest among his supporters as part of a larger effort to challenge the certification of the election results. They claimed that this was just one piece of a broader, multistate plan to undermine the electoral process.
“Shortly after election day, the defendant began to target the electoral process at the state level by attempting to deceive state officials and to prevent or overturn the legitimate ascertainment and appointment of Biden’s electors,” prosecutors stated. They detailed how Trump and his co-conspirators pressured state officials in battleground states, including Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, and used false claims of voter fraud to try to sway the outcome.
Prosecutors also repeatedly emphasized that Trump’s actions were those of a candidate rather than a president to advance their argument that Trump’s conduct was not part of his official presidential duties, and therefore not subject to the Supreme Court’s new definition of presidential immunity.
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Prosecutors are now asking the court to rule that Trump is not immune from prosecution for his alleged attempts to interfere with the election and are pushing for a trial to proceed. Trump’s defense team will have an opportunity to rebut Smith’s arguments before Chutkan issues a ruling.
Bradley Moss, a national security attorney, told the Washington Examiner the evidence Smith presented in the filing is strong enough that it makes a conviction likely if Trump loses the election and the prosecution proceeds.
“The damning amount of evidence in this filing, some of which we knew but other parts we are learning of for the first time, is a stark reminder how much Trump’s campaign is tied to his personal benefit,” Moss said. “If he loses in November, and this case makes it to trial, the odds of a conviction are high and he faces serious possible jail time. It is the presidency or bust for Donald Trump.”
Below is a look at the evidence Smith introduced in the filing.
Trump campaign official tells colleague in Detroit to “make them riot” over election results
An unnamed Trump campaign official, who is also a co-conspirator in Trump’s indictment, balked when told that a key batch of ballots in the swing state of Michigan was favorable for Biden.
“Find a reason it isn’t,” the Trump campaign official allegedly told a colleague at the TCF Center in Detroit. When the colleague warned that there would be unrest, prosecutors said the campaign officials responded with “Make them riot” and “Do it!!!”
Pence and Trump have several conversations about election results
Former Vice President Mike Pence is a key witness for Smith. Trump’s defense team has said it plans to argue that Trump’s charges should be tossed out because conversations between Pence and Trump make up the bulk of Smith’s evidence and those communications are immunized.
Nevertheless, prosecutors cited Pence and the former vice president’s book So Help Me God repeatedly in the immunity document.
Pence allegedly “told the defendant that he had seen no evidence of outcome-determinative fraud in the election.” This was one of “many conversations” Pence had with Trump to try to convey that the president should accept the election results, prosecutors said.
Trump’s overheard comment
An unnamed White House aide was traveling with Trump and, according to prosecutors, overheard Trump tell his family members that “it doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”
It is unclear when this alleged comment by Trump occurred, but prosecutors said it was “long after the defendant had begun spreading false fraud claims.”
Trump compared Sidney Powell’s claims about election fraud to a Star Trek movie
Weeks after the election, prosecutors said Trump privately took issue with attorney Sidney Powell, another co-conspirator in Trump’s indictment who had launched a failed lawsuit in Georgia regarding vote counting machines.
Trump said Powell sounded “unhinged” when she spoke during a press conference, according to prosecutors.
Trump “mocked and laughed at” Powell while she was muted during a call on Nov. 20, prosecutors said. Trump also “made a reference to the science fiction series Star Trek when describing her allegations,” prosecutors said.
Trump disregarded Ronna McDaniel’s concerns about lobbying
In mid-November, Trump asked then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to arrange a meeting between him and two top Michigan legislators to discuss the election, and he also asked McDaniel to participate in the meeting, according to prosecutors.
McDaniel declined, saying her attorney advised her that she should not participate because it could be considered lobbying.
Trump posted on X on Nov. 18, two days before the meeting, that there were “FAR MORE VOTES THAN PEOPLE” in Michigan and that the election was a “scam.”
During the meeting with the legislators, he dialed McDaniel into it despite her request to skip it, prosecutors said.
