Complete Breakdown of Jack Smith Filing
Complete Breakdown of Jack Smith Filing
The Department of Justice has submitted a legal proffer, which has now been made public, that gives us the fullest glimpse yet of what Donald Trump did and said to conspire to steal the election.
Jack Smith and federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice presented their strongest arguments to date, in the criminal case against Donald Trump for his effort to overturn the 2020 election, and the document was unsealed yesterday. The 165-page legal brief, that was made public on Wednesday by District of Columbia Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, provides a legal proffer, which is an explanation of how one would present evidence at trial, that the judge must accept or reject.
The newly released full document, which has been released just weeks before the next election offers explosive new details about special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to push state officials into refusing to certify results in their states. This pleading gives the most complete picture, so far, of the prosecution’s evidence in the criminal case against the former president.
This latest filing provides a very detailed narrative of the personal exchanges between Trump, his attorneys, his campaign, his advisors, and even his former Vice President Mike Pence. The memo includes evidence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of Trump’s many phone calls on January 6, 2021, when rioters overtook the United States Capitol, in addition to personal conversations with family members and others regarding his plan to claim a fake win in the election.
There is a lot of material in this document, so I have created an extensive thread of information about the salient details within it that I posted yesterday on Twitter. I will give you the biggest points first and then publish that thread again, in it’s entirety, here. The first thing you will need to decipher Smith’s filing completely, is the key to all of the redacted names in the document. Those can all be decoded in the tweet below.
NOTE: Not all names have been formally verified, so this list is a great starting point for reading the document. The major players, who have been mentioned in this piece are all accurate.
Make Them Riot
Some of the most shocking takeaways from the filing include a documented exchange on November 4, 2020, when vote tallies were not showing a Trump win in Detroit. A campaign staffer (page 8) texted a Trump operative to get a riot going among his supporters outside the counting center, allegedly texting:"Make them riot"and "Do it!!!!"
After one batch of votes was counted in Detroit that favored Biden, Michael Roman, a Trump Campaign campaign staffer, allegedly texted another Trump operative seeking "options to file litigation," even if the legal objections were "itbis," a seemingly corrupted version of "BS," a common abbreviation of the expletive "bullshit."
Additionally prosecutors allege that, in Philadelphia, Trump operatives tried to use similar tactics and create confrontations at polling centers (start page 38) and then "falsely claim that his election observers were being denied proper access," so Trump could tell his supporters that the count centers were engaged in fraud.
“So What?”
The Jack Smith filing also confirms that Donald Trump called then-Vice President Mike Pence on the morning of January 6, 2021, demanding that he refuse to certify the election and making many attempts to persuade him (start page 79). According to the document, Trump was "incensed," after Pence refused to go along with Trump’s plan.
The document also states that at a later time on Jan 6, when chanting rioters broke into the Capitol building in order to threaten Pence, Trump made a post on Twitter (now X) that his vice president "didn't have the courage" to refuse to certify the election. According to Smith, Trump overtly attacked "Pence for refusing the defendant's entreaties to join the conspiracy and help overturn the results of the election."
The tweet specifically told Trump's "angry supporters that Pence had let him—and them—down.” The prosecution's filing also explains that during the riot, a rioter used a bullhorn to read out Trump's tweet to his fellow rioters. A minute after Trump posted the tweet, the Secret Service and Capitol police took the vice president to a secure location inside the Capitol building.
A White House aide ran to Trump to tell the then-president that he had just received a phone call informing him that Pence had been taken to a secure location "in hopes that [President Trump] would take action to ensure Pence's safety." Trump replied: "So what?" and showed no concern for Pence's safety as the rioters walked around the Capitol building looking for the vice president.
“F****** Nuts”
In mid-December 2020, Trump spoke with Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (start page 46) and "asked her to publicize and promote a private report that had been released on December 13 that purported to identify flaws" in the use of voting machines in Antrim County, Michigan.
McDaniel refused, telling Trump that she had already discussed the report with Michigan's Speaker of the House, "who had told her the report was inaccurate." According to the filing, Ronna McDaniel explained to Trump that the Michigan Speaker's "exact assessment: the report was f******* nuts." Despite this exchange, Trump allegedly continued to claim that the election in Michigan and other states had been rigged in Biden's favor.
“It Doesn't Matter if You Won Or Lost”
Trump was traveling with his family on the presidential helicopter Marine One with First Lady Melania, his daughter Ivanka (P14), and son-in-law Jared Kushner (P13), after the election. Also on board was an unnamed White House official who was assistant to the president and the director of Oval Office operations.
The White House official, the same one who brought Trump the news that Pence had been moved to safety on Jan. 6, is willing to testify that during the flight Donald Trump told his family: "It doesn't matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell." According to the filing, the White House official "witnessed an unprompted comment that the defendant made to his family members in which the defendant suggested that he would fight to remain in power regardless of whether he had won the election."
“F*** His Lawyer”
This latest filing by Jack Smith denotes that Trump and his allies tried many times to get Pence to comply with their strategy for falsely claiming voter fraud. One Trump operative stated that Pence's lawyer, Greg Jacob, was "totally against us."
According to the filing, when former White House chief strategist, Steve Bannon (P1) replied with, "F*** his lawyer." Bannon later refused to cooperate with the January 6 House Select Committee which sought to investigate Trump’s attempts to overturn the election. Bannon is currently serving a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress.
If you would like to read my full breakdown of Jack Smith’s 165-page document, start with the tweet below which begins the thread:
You can also read the entire thread, which has been put in a more reader-friendly format here.
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Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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We have to Get Kamala elected , thank you Jack Smith
Trump's lies are the teflon that lets him slide away from punishments.
His statements and claims and accusations are the only way to put him on a searing slide to hell.
I'll be happy to watch via live video if this amoral slime monster ever gets shackled and imprisoned. I'd even watch live video from prison while he tries to negotiate his safety with people who hate him.