Trump ‘used crime’ to overturn the 2020 election

Donald Trump “turned to crime” while trying to reverse his 2020 election loss, and he shouldn’t get away with the charges, prosecutors said.

The new court ruling refutes Trump’s claim that he should avoid prosecution because of a recent US Supreme Court decision. This said that US presidents must be protected from prosecution when they are acting “officially”.

Trump was president at the time of the charges – but prosecutors say he was acting “in a private capacity”, not officially.

In response, Trump repeated false claims that the 2020 vote was “fixed” and suggested the timing of the file’s release was designed to hurt his 2024 campaign.

In an interview with NewsNation, he also criticized special counsel Jack Smith, the lead prosecutor in the election interference investigation who filed the petition.

This is one of four criminal charges Trump has faced since being elected in 2020 – one of which resulted in a landmark conviction in New York.

He is accused of trying to illegally block the certificate of victory of President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, but he denies it.

The new 165-page document presents the clearest view yet of how Mr Smith’s team will proceed with their case, after amending the wording of their charges following the High Court’s intervention.

It details Trump’s alleged plan, including his actions when his supporters rioted at the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021. It also details the efforts of Mike Pence, then vice president, to implicate him.

The issue is still prominent in American politics almost four years later, ahead of the 2024 election in November, which will be contested by Trump and Kamala Harris.

It appeared in Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, where JD Vance refused to answer whether Trump, his running mate in 2024, lost in 2020.

The court filing – which was presented by a judge on Wednesday with some delays – may represent Mr Smith’s last chance to make his case against Trump.

The case has been delayed ever since the charges were filed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) more than a year ago. Trump will not face impeachment before the November election — and may seek to have the case dismissed if he wins.

Trump’s lawyers have fought to keep the latest dossier sealed. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called it “false” and “unconstitutional”.

In a newly released document, Mr Smith and his team are trying to address the Supreme Court’s summer ruling – which included their case – by narrowing their scope.

The Supreme Court’s decision did not apply immunity to unlawful acts. Prosecutors say that while Trump was still in office when he tried to overturn the 2020 vote, his efforts were related to his campaign and his life as a private citizen. They call it a “private criminal enterprise”.

Therefore, the court must “decide that the defendant must appear in court for his private charges as he would any other citizen,” the file said.

The filing reveals several times when Pence expressed doubts about claims of voter fraud and tried to persuade him to accept that he had lost the election.

In a court filing, prosecutors said Trump was not upset when he learned the vice president had been rushed to safety as rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “So now?” he is said to have said when he was told about the scenes.

Pence will later go public about his disagreements with Trump after a storm in Congress, where some protesters chanted “hang Mike Pence” because the vice president refused to block the verification of the election results.

The filing also reveals that Trump had always planned to declare victory regardless of the outcome, and laid the groundwork for this before election day. It also accused him of spreading false claims about the vote, which he called “crazy”.

Mr Smith also provides new information about the alleged role of the Trump campaign in sowing chaos in battleground states, where many of the votes are being counted in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a heavily Democratic precinct in Detroit, Michigan, where a majority of the vote appears to be in favor of Biden, Trump’s campaign is said to have told a colleague to “find out why” there is something wrong with the polls to give him “voting options.” case file”.

The filing also claims that Trump and his allies, including Attorney General Rudy Giuliani, want to “exploit violence and unrest in the Capitol” on January 6, 2021 to delay the issuance of a certificate of election. They are said to have done this by calling senators and leaving voicemails asking them to oppose the state’s voters.

Trump said on Wednesday that the case would end with his “complete victory”.

A trial date has not been set.

North American journalist Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his weekly newsletter US Election Unspun.

UK students can register here. Those outside the UK can register here.