Topline
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s wide-ranging filing detailing former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election was made public Wednesday, detailing a number of bombshell new allegations about Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the ex-president’s alleged knowledge that the fraud claims he was pushing were completely false.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference on October 1 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Key Facts
Smith’s filing lays out prosecutors’ full criminal case against Trump using evidence beyond what’s in the indictment, arguing the allegations comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling giving Trump immunity from criminal charges based on “official acts” he took as president because Trump was acting as a political candidate and private citizen in his efforts to overturn the election.
Trump Knew Fraud Claims Were False: Prosecutors allege Trump was repeatedly told by aides that his election fraud claims had no merit—and he seemed to agree, telling one aide the “details don’t matter” after Trump was informed his claims wouldn’t hold up in court—and the then-president was overheard telling his family, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”
Trump and his allies made up fraud allegations “out of whole cloth,” prosecutors allege—claiming the ex-president and his allies repeatedly changed the number of ballots that were purportedly fraudulent—and the ex-president didn’t believe claims from attorney Sidney Powell about voting machines changing ballots even as his campaign pushed them, with Smith alleging he “mocked” Powell to aides while on the phone with her and compared her allegations to “Star Trek.”
Pre-Election Strategy: Trump also allegedly planned to declare victory even before the votes were fully tallied, with the filing quoting a staffer privately telling a group of supporters before Election Day, “What Trump’s going to do is just declare victory. … That doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just going to say he’s the winner … that’s our strategy.”
Rudy Giuliani: The former New York City mayor was allegedly hired to lead Trump’s post-election legal team after Trump fired his other lawyers for not being willing to push his fraud claims, with Smith alleging Trump hired Giuliani because he “was willing to falsely claim victory and spread knowingly false claims of election fraud”—and allegedly told staffers he would only pay Giuliani if the legal cases succeeded.
Trump and Mike Pence: The filing details how Trump allegedly tried to pressure the then-vice president to refuse to certify the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, and got angry when Pence said he wouldn’t, alleging that when Trump was told Pence had to be moved to a secure location during the Jan. 6 attack—right after Trump tweeted Pence lacked the “courage to do what should have been done”—the then-president said, “So what?”
Trump Aides Didn’t Believe Fraud Claims: The filing includes significant evidence suggesting Trump’s closest allies didn’t believe Trump’s fraud claims even as they helped push them, noting alleged instances like White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows sending texts saying fraud claims on dead voters were false—while the Trump campaign was pushing those claims at a Michigan hearing—and quoting a person believed to be Trump advisor Jason Miller saying, “It’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy s–t beamed down from the mothership.”
Prosecutors also allege former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel refused to publicly back certain fraud claims because she was told they were “f–king nuts.”
“Make Them Riot”: The filing details an alleged instance of Trump campaign employees trying to “sow confusion” when votes were being counted in Detroit, with a staffer telling a colleague to “find a reason” to claim ballots were fraudulent after being told a group of votes in President Joe Biden’s favor were correct—and after the colleague said doing so could lead to violence, the staffer responded, “Make them riot.”
Jan. 6: The filing gives new details about Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, saying he allegedly spent much of the day by himself in the White House dining room watching Fox News and looking at Twitter, and alleges that on Jan. 5, Trump called advisor Steve Bannon less than two hours before Bannon predicted on his podcast that “all hell is going to break loose” on Jan. 6.
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Chief Critic
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in the federal election case and strongly opposed Smith’s filing, claiming Tuesday on Truth Social the document is “PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT” that should not have been released before the election and alleging the DOJ released it to distract from Gov. Tim Walz’s performance at the vice presidential debate. (The document was made public by the court and prosecutors had no involvement in when it was unsealed.) Trump’s lawyers unsuccessfully tried to keep the document from being filed at all, decrying it as a “180-page false hit piece” even before seeing it.
What To Watch For
More evidence could be released in the coming weeks, as an appendix to Smith’s filing—which would contain more complete transcripts and other evidence that’s only excerpted in this document—still remains under seal. Trump’s attorneys have until Oct. 10 to respond to Smith’s proposed redactions of the appendix, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan could make the document public soon thereafter. Trump then has until Oct. 17 to respond to Smith’s filing, though the ex-president asked Wednesday for an additional five weeks to file his response, which would push the deadline until after Election Day. Chutkan has not yet ruled on that request.
What We Don’t Know
How long the case will take to play out. After Trump files his response to Smith’s filing, it will be up to Chutkan to determine which charges against Trump, if any, comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling and can proceed to trial. Trump is likely to appeal Chutkan’s ruling if it leaves any charges intact, however, meaning the dispute could stretch on for months and possibly go back to the Supreme Court for a second time. The case’s fate will also depend heavily on the outcome of the presidential election, as if Trump wins, he’s likely to appoint Justice Department officials who would drop the charges against him.
Key Background
Trump faces four felony charges of conspiracy to defraud, obstruction and conspiracy against rights for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, one of four criminal cases that have been brought against the ex-president. (He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.) Smith’s filing has been hotly anticipated since the case started moving forward again in August, after being paused for months while the Supreme Court deliberated on whether Trump was immune from the charges. With the immunity debate delaying the trial in the case indefinitely—it was originally slated for March—Smith’s filing has been viewed as the main way for prosecutors to lay out their case and evidence against Trump for voters ahead of the election. Prosecutors filed the document with the court last week but it was only made public on Wednesday, after Trump’s lawyers unsuccessfully tried to have more of the filing redacted. Chutkan rejected their request in a ruling Wednesday and slammed Trump’s repeated claims in legal filings that prosecutors have a partisan bias against him. Those claims “continue a pattern of defense filings focusing on political rhetoric rather than addressing the legal issues at hand,” Chutkan wrote, adding the arguments are “unresponsive and unhelpful” and “unbefitting of experienced defense counsel.”
