Donald Trump indicted: Five anecdotes from Jack Smith’s indictment
Ashley Oliver
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Former President Donald Trump’s arraignment Thursday comes after special counsel Jack Smith charged the former president this week with four felonies for his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump is expected to plead not guilty to the charges, but as his legal team prepares to make his case to a Washington, D.C., jury, here are five anecdotes from the indictment that Smith uses to support his allegations.
DONALD TRUMP INDICTED: ALL THE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE ARRAIGNMENT AT DC COURTHOUSE
1. “It’s all just conspiracy s*** beamed down from the mothership,” a senior Trump campaign adviser wrote on Dec. 8, 2020.
Smith repeatedly emphasized that Trump “knowingly” used false claims to attempt to retain power, establishing the former president’s motive throughout the indictment. Smith pointed to campaign and White House aides rejecting, sometimes directly to Trump, his assertions about the election.
One such example was from a top campaign adviser who Smith said “spoke with the Defendant on a daily basis” and had told Trump “on multiple occasions that various fraud claims were untrue.” That adviser, according to CNN, was Jason Miller.
About perceived election problems in Georgia, the adviser, apparently Miller, wrote, “When our research and campaign legal team can’t back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team, you can see why we’re 0-32 on our cases. I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy s*** beamed down from the mothership.”
2. Rudy Giuliani reportedly “falsely assured” Trump electors in Pennsylvania that he would only need to use their signed certificates saying Trump won the election if Trump’s election lawsuits were successful.
Smith argued Trump organized a fraudulent set of electors in battleground states in violation of the Constitution and Electoral Count Act and also “tricked” some of those electors into working with them under the assumption they would only be used if Trump’s now-failed election lawsuits in their states panned out.
In one instance, “Co-Conspirator 1,” who the indictment details indicate is Giuliani, was on a call with other alleged co-conspirators during which he assured concerned Trump-appointed electors they would only be used in the event of successful litigation.
However, memos, according to Smith, “confirmed that the conspirators’ plan was not to use the fraudulent electors” only in that circumstance but instead to “falsely present the fraudulent slates as an alternative to the legitimate slates at Congress’s certification proceeding.”
3. Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark reportedly “accepted [Trump’s] offer” to become acting attorney general on Jan. 3, 2021.
Smith said Trump used the authority of his DOJ to carry out his alleged crimes, including by conducting “sham election crime investigations” and using coercion to communicate to battleground states claims that the DOJ “had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the election outcome.”
He said Trump coordinated on the matter with “Co-Conspirator 4,” who the indictment details indicate is Clark.
A previously nonpublic point Smith made is that on Jan. 3, 2021, Clark met with Trump at the White House without giving requisite notice to department heads and allegedly accepted an offer from Trump to replace the current acting attorney general.
4. Trump told Mike Pence he was “too honest” and that he “won every state by 100,000s of votes.”
Smith charged that Trump attempted to use then-Vice President Pence to “fraudulently alter the election results” in part by rejecting or sending back to the states the electoral votes cast for now-President Joe Biden.
Pence, who was responsible for presiding over the Senate’s certification of the election, opposed the idea. During a conversation on Jan. 1, 2021, where Pence expressed his opposition, Trump replied, “You’re too honest,” according to the indictment.
Smith pointed to a meeting Trump, “Co-Conspirator 2,” who appeared to be attorney John Eastman, and Pence then had on Jan. 4, 2021, during which Trump asserted to Pence that he had “won every state by 100,000s of votes.”
5. Upon warning that if Trump refused to leave office, riots would ensue, Clark allegedly replied, “That’s why we have an Insurrection Act.”
Part of Smith’s case included the accusation that Trump “exploited” the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to continue to carry out his plans to obstruct the election certification process. The special counsel also pointed to examples of predictions of violence in the days ahead of the riot in the indictment.
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According to the indictment, one prescient exchange ahead of the riot occurred on Jan. 3, 2021, between Trump’s former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin and Clark during which Philbin warned that if Trump did not leave office, there would be “riots in every major city in the United States.”
Clark allegedly replied, “Well, [deputy White House counsel], that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.”