Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ in bid to stay in office after losing 2020 election
Donald Trump “resorted to crimes” after losing the 2020 election, prosecutors said in a court filing unsealed on Wednesday that argues the former president is not entitled to immunity from prosecution over his failed bid to remain in power.
The filing was submitted by special counsel Jack Smith’s team following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents for official acts they take in office.
Scope
The decision narrowed the scope of the prosecution in charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the results of the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The purpose of the brief is to convince US District Judge Tanya Chutkan that the offences charged in the indictment are private, rather than official, acts and can therefore remain part of the indictment as the case moves forward.
Those include efforts to persuade former vice president Mike Pence to refuse to certify the counting of the electoral votes on the afternoon of January 6 2021.
Private
“Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one,” Mr Smith’s team said.
“Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted — a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role.”
“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” the filing said.
The filing includes details of conversations between Trump and Mr Pence, including a private lunch the two had on November 12 2020, in which Mr Pence “reiterated a face-saving option” for Trump, telling him “don’t concede but recognise the process is over”, according to prosecutors.
In another private lunch days later, Mr Pence urged Trump to accept the results of the election and run again in 2024.
“I don’t know, 2024 is so far off,” Trump told him, according to the filing.
But Trump “disregarded” Mr Pence “in the same way he disregarded dozens of court decisions that unanimously rejected his and his allies’ legal claims, and that he disregarded officials in the targeted states — including those in his own party — who stated publicly that he had lost and that his specific fraud allegations were false,” prosecutors wrote.
Trump’s “steady stream of disinformation” in the weeks after the election culminated in his speech at the Ellipse on the morning of January 6 2021, in which Trump “used these lies to inflame and motivate the large and angry crowd of his supporters to march to the Capitol and disrupt the certification proceeding,” prosecutors wrote.
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The fact that JD Vance (who refused to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election in last night’s debate) is his running mate this time around and not Mike Pence, means that he will no doubt surround himself with yes men if he comes back to power. Trump is a clear and present threat to democracy, and should have been disqualified from ever running for office again after January 6, 2021. The US justice system is a joke.
Imagine that Trump passes away in office, Vance becomes 47. Vance is an absolute nightmare. His views are abhorrent, Trump is bad but there are levels of hate lurking in Vance that I don’t think anyone wants to see (hard to beat Trump there but….). There are two threats to democracy.
This has landed because Trump has done a load to try to get out of it. Jack Smith ain’t messing around it seems.
Pence and Pelosi were in serious danger. And Trump was egging them on.
Many people have gone to jail over their part in the violent insurrection and election meddling, but this stain on humanity remains free.
Farage and many a Tory adore this convicted felon and abuser. Farage likes to pick them, trump encouraged a riot, where did we see that in our politics?
Has Farage ever ,in an interview, been asked if he seriously believes that Trump won the election? If not,why not!!
Good question and I’m not sure. I would like someone to ask him and I’d be interested in the answer but I can’t ask him. Mainly because I’m not a journalist but also because I would not lower myself to speak to him.
Dunno, ask the reporters we have to rely on and avoid conflict. Guess which boat Farage will be in. Farage is so far up trump he can see out of trumps nostrils.
‘Trump encouraged a riot, where did we see that in our politics?’. Farij berated Muslims on a Trevor Phillips interview, then spread misinformation on social media and BINGO! RIOTS with Mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers being targeted. Donald Farage, Nigel Trump. Twins.
The US is so polarised that nothing Trump has done will stop people voting for him. It’s partly the result of having just two parties to vote for. The democracy over there is even more flawed than it is here.