WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump “laid the groundwork for his crimes” well before Election Day in 2020, saying “the details don’t matter” when he was told his claims of election fraud would fail in court. And his reaction when he learned that then-Vice President Mike Pence was taken to a secure location as rioters stormed the Capitol?
“And then?”
That’s according to a 165-page court filing from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team, which paints a portrait of a president so desperate to stay in power that he “resorted to crimes” after losing the 2020 election from Democrat Joe Biden.
The dossier released Wednesday offers a glimpse into the evidence and testimony prosecutors plan to present if the case accusing Trump of an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election ever goes to trial.
The Republican presidential candidate has insisted he did nothing illegal and has characterized the case as an attempt to damage his bid to win back the White House in November. Trump’s lawyers who pushed to dismiss the case will now have a chance to respond to prosecutors’ claims in court.
Here are some of the key passages from the dossier:
Trump laid the groundwork for his plan early on, prosecutors say
Prosecutors allege that Trump began laying the groundwork for his illegal scheme well before Election Day, refusing to say in the months leading up to the election whether he would accept the results and suggesting that he could only lose if there was fraud.
Three days before the election, a Trump political adviser told a group of supporters that the then-president would “declare himself the winner” regardless of the outcome, prosecutors said.
“That doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just going to say he’s the winner,” the adviser said.
Trump “did just that” immediately after the election, prosecutors said. Then, in the days after the election, Trump’s allies tried to “create chaos” at polling places where votes were still being counted, Smith’s team claims.
When told about a series of votes in Detroit that appeared to be heavily in President Joe Biden’s favor, a campaign worker told a colleague to “find a reason” that didn’t add up and “give me options to make a to file a lawsuit. ”
When the colleague suggested that there would be unrest, the campaign worker responded: “Root them” and “Do it!!!” according to the declaration.
“The details don’t matter,” Trump told an adviser
Prosecutors are trying to show that Trump knew his claims of election fraud were bogus because many close to him told him there was no fraud and that he had in fact lost the election. Prosecutors say Trump ignored these assurances, just as he “ignored dozens of court rulings that unanimously rejected his and his allies’ legal claims.”
In a key moment detailed in the filing, prosecutors say a lawyer who represented Trump during his first impeachment trial told Trump his claims of election fraud would not hold up in court. Trump responded: “The details don’t matter,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say they will introduce evidence showing that Trump and his allies “made up numbers from whole cloth” about election fraud, detailing how they repeatedly changed their baseless claims about the number of noncitizens who voted in Arizona.
Details of Trump’s relentless pressure on Pence
One of the most illuminating parts of the dossier details the brutal pressure campaign that Trump and his allies mounted against Pence, which began well before Election Day and ran until the final minutes of the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021 .
While most of the details of the former president’s futile attempts to get his running mate to reject Biden’s electoral votes are well documented, Smith’s latest letter provides an even more detailed look at the rift between the two men , as prosecutors say one desperately tried to cling to power and the other fought to maintain its staunch loyalty to the Constitution.
When news organizations including The Associated Press called the election for Biden on Nov. 7, Pence saw it as an opportunity to “encourage” Trump “as a friend,” reminding him that he was “taking a dying political party and giving it a gave a chance. A new lease on life,” prosecutors wrote. A few days later, as Trump and his allies were still strategizing to overcome the defeat, Pence reiterated that the next presidential election in 2024 was “not that far away.”
When Pence declined on December 28 to support the various lawsuits being pursued by Trump and his closest allies in Congress, the filing states that Trump told his vice president that “hundreds of thousands” of people will “hate your guts” and “people will think you’re stupid.” He added, “You’re too honest.”
This continued for days until the two men met in person for the last time before January 6. The meeting in the Oval Office on the eve of the certification is seen by prosecutors as one of Trump’s latest efforts to privately encourage Pence to detain him. in power, telling him again that he had “the power to decertify the results.” “When Pence was unmoved, the defendant threatened to publicly criticize him,” the filing said. “I have to say you have done a great disservice,” Trump said. Pence relayed this comment to a member of his team who saw it as a direct threat “to the point of alerting Pence’s Secret Service.
‘And then?’ Trump said when told Pence was being rushed to safety
When Trump’s supporters began attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop the counting of electoral votes, an aide rushed in to tell Trump that Pence had been taken to a secure location. The aide hoped Trump would “take action to ensure Trump’s safety,” prosecutors wrote. Instead, Trump’s only response was, “So what?” prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors say they will present “forensic evidence” from Trump’s cell phone and testimony from witnesses to show how Trump spent the afternoon of Jan. 6 on Twitter and watching TV coverage of the riot as his aides pressured him to make a public statement to quell the violence. .
“Instead, the defendant repeatedly refused until his advisors gave up and left him alone in the dining room,” prosecutors wrote.
Alone in the dining room, Trump then sent a tweet attacking Pence for not having the “courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution,” giving states the opportunity to establish a corrected set of facts and not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones they were previously required to certify.”
A rioter with a megaphone read Trump’s tweet about Pence to the crowd trying to enter the Capitol, prosecutors said. Only after advisers again urged Trump to do something about the riot did he send a tweet encouraging his supporters to support law enforcement and “remain peaceful,” prosecutors wrote.
