Special counsel Jack Smith provides fullest picture yet of his 2020 election case against Trump in new filing
CNN
A federal judge in Washington, DC, has released the most comprehensive narrative to date of the 2020 election conspiracy case against Donald Trump, outlining what special counsel Jack Smith describes as the former president’s “private criminal conduct.”
A federal judge in Washington, DC, has released the most comprehensive narrative to date of the 2020 election conspiracy case against Donald Trump, outlining what special counsel Jack Smith describes as the former president’s “private criminal conduct.” The 165-page document comes from Smith’s office and is the fullest accounting yet of evidence in the election subversion case against Trump. Throughout the document, Smith argues that the actions Trump took to overturn the election were in his private capacity – as a candidate – rather than in his official capacity, as a president. That argument flows from the Supreme Court’s decision in July, which granted the former president sweeping immunity for official actions but left the door open for prosecutors to pursue Trump for unofficial steps he took. ”At its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private one,” prosecutors wrote in the motion. “He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office.” The filing weaves together what prominent witnesses told a federal grand jury and the FBI about Trump, along with other never-before-disclosed evidence investigators gathered about the former president’s actions leading up to and on January 6, 2021. Releasing the motion, which was previously filed under seal, is the latest major development in Smith’s longstanding effort to prosecute Trump for actions he took to overturn the 2020 election, even as the former president is seeking a second term in a tight race with Vice President Kamala Harris. The case, which has already reached the Supreme Court once, has repeatedly been delayed as Trump has attempted to push off the prosecution until after the next month’s election.
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