Judge unseals key filing in special counsel’s election case against Trump
U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Tanya Chutkan on Wednesday unsealed a key filing in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election case against former President Trump.
Chutkan unsealed Smith’s 165-page filing after the special counsel submitted the document, in which he lays out the case and alleged evidence he intends to use in an eventual trial against Trump.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him by Smith.
Trump, himself, fired back against Smith on Wednesday blasting the case as 2024 election interference.
‘Democrats are Weaponizing the Justice Department against me because they know I am WINNING, and they are desperate to prop up their failing Candidate, Kamala Harris,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social. ‘The DOJ pushed out this latest ‘hit job’ today because JD Vance humiliated Tim Walz last night in the Debate.’
Trump said the DOJ ‘has become nothing more than an extension of Joe’s, and now Kamala’s, Campaign.’
‘This is egregious PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT, and should not have been released right before the Election,’ Trump said. ‘The Democrat Party is turning America into a Third World Country that tries to censor, harass, and intimidate their Political Opponents. What they have done to our Justice System is one of the Great, All Time, Tragedies.’
The former president added that the Democrat Party ‘is guilty of the Worst Election Interference in American History.’
‘They are trying to DESTROY OUR DEMOCRACY, allowing millions of people to enter our Country illegally. They are determined to stop us from winning back the White House, sealing the Border, and MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. BUT THEY WILL FAIL, AND WE WILL SAVE OUR NATION!’ Trump posted.
Trump also blasted Smith as ‘deranged,’ and said that he, the ‘Harris-Biden DOJ, and Washington, D.C. based Radical Left Democrats, are ‘HELL BENT on continuing to Weaponize the Justice Department in an attempt to cling to power.’
”TRUMP’ is dominating the Election cycle, leading in the Polls, and the Radical Democrats throughout the Deep State are totally ‘freaking out.’ This entire case is a Partisan, Unconstitutional, Witch Hunt, that should be dismissed, entirely, just like the Florida case was dismissed!’ Trump said.
The Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that a president is immune from prosecution for official acts.
Smith was then required to file another indictment against Trump, revising the charges in an effort to navigate the Supreme Court ruling. The new indictment kept the prior criminal charges but narrowed and reframed allegations against Trump after the high court’s ruling that gave broad immunity to former presidents.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in the new indictment as well.
In the filing unsealed Wednesday, Smith outlines a ‘factual proffer,’ alleging Trump ‘resorted to crimes to try to stay in office’ after losing the 2020 presidential election.
‘With private co-conspirators, the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin,’ Smith wrote.
‘His efforts included lying to state officials in order to induce them to ignore true vote counts; manufacturing fraudulent electoral votes in the targeted states; attempting to enlist Vice President Michael R. Pence, in his role as President of the Senate, to obstruct Congress’s certification of the election by using the defendant’s fraudulent electoral votes; and when all else had failed, on January 6, 2021, directing an angry crowd of supporters to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification.’
Smith claims that the ‘throughline of these efforts was deceit,’ claiming Trump and co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to interfere with the federal government function by which the nation collects and counts election results, which is set forth in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act (ECA); a conspiracy to obstruct the official proceeding in which Congress certifies the legitimate results of the presidential election; and a conspiracy against the rights of millions of Americans to vote and have their votes counted.’
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital the release of the ‘falsehood-ridden, unconstitutional J6 brief immediately following Tim Walz’s disastrous debate performance is another obvious attempt by the Harris-Biden regime to undermine American Democracy and interfere in this election.’
‘Deranged Jack Smith and Washington DC Radical Democrats are hell-bent on weaponizing the Justice Department in an attempt to cling to power,’ Cheung said. ‘President Trump is dominating, and the Radical Democrats throughout the Deep State are freaking out.
‘This entire case is a partisan, Unconstitutional Witch Hunt that should be dismissed entirely, together with ALL of the remaining Democrat hoaxes.’
In the filing, Smith lays out his findings, claiming that people close to Trump had tried to tell him that the claims were all ‘bulls—.’
Smith details conversations between an unnamed Trump personal attorney and the former president. That attorney allegedly told Trump that the campaign was ‘looking into his fraud claims and had even hired external experts to do so, but could find no support for them.’
‘He told the defendant that if the Campaign took these claims to court, they would get slaughtered because the claims are all ‘bullsh—,’’ the filing states, with Smith claiming that a lawyer discussed with Trump the investigations and ‘debunkings on all major claims.’
Smith also details alleged interactions between Trump and Pence in the days following the election.
Smith details a Nov. 7, 2020, call between Pence and Trump in which Pence allegedly ‘tried to encourage’ Trump ‘as a friend’ by reminding him that he ‘took a dying political party and gave it a new lease on life.’
Smith also details a private lunch between Trump and Pence on Nov. 12, 2020, in which Pence allegedly gave Trump a ‘face-saving option.’ That option, according to the filing, was ‘don’t concede but recognize the process is over.’
Smith also detailed another private lunch between Trump and Pence on Nov. 16, 2020, in which Pence allegedly tried to encourage Trump to accept the results of the election and run again in 2024. Trump allegedly said at the time: ‘I don’t know, 2024 is so far off.’
Smith details another private lunch between the two in which Pence allegedly ‘encouraged’ Trump ‘not to look at the election as a loss — just an intermission.’
Smith wrote that, after that lunch, Trump allegedly asked Pence in the Oval Office, ‘What do you think we should do?’
Pence allegedly said, ‘After we have exhausted every legal process in the courts and Congress, if we still came up short, [the defendant] should ‘take a bow.’’
Meanwhile, Smith claims a White House staffer traveling with Trump overheard him tell his family members that ‘it doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.’
Smith claims Trump ‘was on notice that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud in Arizona within a week of the election’ and claimed Trump also ‘had early notice that his claims of election fraud in Georgia were false.’
Smith claims that ‘none of the allegations or evidence is protected by presidential immunity,’ arguing that Trump’s ‘scheme was a private one.’
‘He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office,’ Smith claimed. ‘To the limited extent that the superseding indictment and proffered evidence reflect official conduct, however, the Government can rebut the presumption of immunity because relying on that conduct in this prosecution will not pose a danger of intrusion on the authority or functions of the Executive Branch.’
Last month, Chutkan said she would not hold the trial for Trump on charges stemming from Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation until after the 2024 presidential election. She set deadlines for replies and paperwork from federal prosecutors and Trump’s legal team for Nov. 7 — after Election Day.
Fox News’ Bill Mears and David Spunt contributed to this report.