In next year’s federal trial for election subversion, special counsel Jack Smith intends to establish that Donald Trump’s ongoing backing of US Capitol rioters suggests he planned to incite violence on January 6, 2021, as a component of a plot he oversaw to reverse the 2020 election.
A court document that was made public on Tuesday highlights some actions taken by Trump during a 2020 presidential debate, including his support for the Proud Boys, his promise to pardon the January 6 rioters, and his use of a recording of the national anthem performed by defendants who were in prison on that day at a campaign rally.
The complaint connects Trump to the rioters on a more personal level than the indictment. Two counts of obstruction and conspiracy have been filed against Trump. He is denying any wrongdoing. The trial is set to take place in the nation’s capital in March.
According to the prosecution, Trump’s financial backing and celebration of the January 6 rioters prove his purpose and motive to conduct federal crimes.
Prosecutors stated that they intend to present evidence at trial demonstrating that since the attack on the Capitol on January 6, the defendant has publicly and proudly supported those who participated in blocking the congressional certification that day. This includes implying that he will pardon them if re-elected, despite his admission that he could have influenced their actions during the attack.
“Despite everything, the defendant has encouraged and rewarded these criminals – a number of whom attacked law enforcement on January 6 – by advertising and playing their rendition of the national anthem at political gatherings and referring to them as ‘hostages,'” the prosecution said.
Before the case proceeds before a jury, Judge Tanya Chutkan must approve the evidentiary preparations from the special counsel’s office. These plans highlight how Trump’s public words, even in recent months, showing sympathy for the Capitol rioters, could be utilised against him in court.
Also, prosecutors intended to show the jury how Trump, when asked to repudiate the Proud Boys during the 2020 presidential debate, instructed them to “stand back and stand by.” He went on to say that the group’s head, Enrique Tarrio, was “treated horribly.” A jury has found Tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy.
The prosecutors stated that the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6 — that is, sending supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to accomplish the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification — can be proven by evidence of his embrace of notoriously violent rioters after the conspiracy.
Allegedly urged efforts to obstruct vote counting
On Tuesday, Smith’s office provided additional information regarding the conduct of Trump’s suspected accomplices, including their attempts to incite riots prior to January 6 and to hinder the count of votes as Joe Biden gained ground in the 2020 election.
At their pre-trial conference, prosecutors detailed their plans to accuse the unindicted co-conspirators of acting either at Trump’s direction or in his favour when they stand trial.
An unnamed co-conspirator, who was described as a campaign employee, “exchanged a series of text messages” with a campaign attorney stationed at the TCF Centre in Detroit during the vote tallying process on November 4, 2020, the day following Election Day.
Upon discovering that the defendant’s opponent was leading the vote tally, the campaign employee “encouraged rioting and other methods of obstruction” in his texts, according to the prosecution.
Who this campaign worker is and if they were originally mentioned as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment are both mysteries. Prosecutors censored portions of the document that addressed the Detroit incident.
“An election official at the TCF Centre observed that as Biden began to take the lead, a large number of untrained individuals flooded the TCF Centre and began making illegitimate and aggressive challenges to the vote count,” the prosecution states in the filing, coinciding with the time the campaign employee sent those messages.
They went on to say: “Subsequently, Trump made multiple unfounded accusations about election activities at the TCF Centre, while in reality, his agent was trying to instigate a riot to throw off the tallying.”
Additionally, Smith’s group promised to present proof of Trump’s and his accomplices’ violent suppression of “dissent against election fraud claims.”
When the former Chief Counsel to the Republican National Committee (RNC) openly refuted the defendant and Co-Conspirator 1’s claims of election fraud, prosecutors say that Trump and the unnamed “Co-Conspirator 1” plotted to “retaliate against the RNC” and its advisor.
Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been named as the first co-conspirator by AWN.
Even Trump himself will be named as part of the “evidence of continued retaliation against the Chief Counsel for publicly speaking the truth about the falsity of the defendant’s claims” that prosecutors intend to present. The section that described the suspected retribution was likewise partially removed.
