Jack Smith: Trump's Been Plotting Election Overthrow Since 2012
In a nine-page court filing made public on Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith shed some light on what facts will be entered into evidence at Donald Trump’s upcoming federal trial for election fraud. The document makes clear that Smith will not restrict the prosecution to statements made and actions taken by Trump between the 2020 election and events on Jan. 6, 2021. Instead, the prosecution will reach back years to show that Trump was preparing claims of election fraud since before he faced off with Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Trump’s statements show that what happened following his loss in 2020 wasn’t a spontaneous response to events in that election, or even a delusional response to his loss. False claims about election fraud had been part of Trump’s patter for years, establishing a record of refusing to accept the results of votes. This helps to prove that Trump didn’t actually believe that he had won the election, undercutting his fraud claims and making his post-election actions more clearly designed to overturn the genuine results.
Additionally, the document indicates that Smith’s team might introduce an unindicted co-conspirator and member of Trump’s 2020 campaign as a witness at the trial.