QOTD -- Trump's Criminal Plots

 

"... Smith’s brief spells out in much greater detail than we have seen elsewhere—including in the report of the special House of Representatives committee investigating the events of Jan. 6—evidence of Trump’s attempts to subvert the election, and especially of Trump’s mental state. It tells us that Trump was warned by his campaign officials that there likely would not be enough ballots counted on election night to know who won, but that he decided beforehand that he would declare victory either way. Trump repeatedly claimed there was fraud in the election and directed the campaign and his lawyers to look for it. They all told him after investigation, as did his Vice President Mike Pence, that there was no evidence of significant fraud and that he lost the election. Pence told Trump to 'take a bow' and think about running in 2024, which Trump thought was too long to wait.

"Trump continued his plot to try to overturn the election, including with a notorious call with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, pressuring him to 'find' 11,780 votes to overturn the results of the election. Trump and his allies tried to twist the arms of legislators to appoint fake electors that could be counted by Congress. (Smith includes bonkers new details about this scheme, including the fact that one potential participant referred to its ringleaders as being like characters in the infamous Star Wars cantina, otherwise known as the most 'wretched hive of scum and villainy' in the galaxy.) Trump directly caused fake electors to meet in various states. He publicly berated Pence for not going along with his plot to overturn the results of the election, and whipped up the Jan. 6 crowd against Pence when they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress’ confirmation of Biden’s Electoral College victory. Over 140 law enforcement officers were injured in the Trump-inspired melee.

"Trump’s detailed plot to overturn the results of the election was brazen and a major threat to American democracy. Because of it, even today, millions of Trump supporters believe the last election was stolen, and that primes the public for new attempts at subversion. Trump’s new running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, had to go along with the lie at Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, refusing to admit the incontrovertible truth that Trump lost the 2020 election..."  -- Rich Hasen, writing in Slate, on yesterday's filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the election subversion case against the Malignant Loser.  Hasen's article rightly focuses on how we got here, specifically the legal delay tactics by the Malignant Loser, Attorney General Garland's foot dragging over appointing a Special Counsel and, most of all, the Republican Supreme Court's connivance in allowing the Malignant Loser to claim immunity for criminality deemed "official acts."

The pre- election tactics employed by the Malignant Loser and his gang of co- conspirators are being played out in this year's election -- undermining confidence in the legitimacy of the vote, throwing up legal obstacles for certifying votes, and other voter suppression actions -- while whitewashing the January 6 insurrection and ignoring the will of the voters by questioning the results of the 2020 election.  As we keep saying, the best way to counter this is for the Harris-Walz ticket to put a serious drubbing on the anti- democracy Republican cult/ party, both at the top of the ticket and in down- ballot races.

You can read the Special Counsel's filing for yourself here (pdf).

BREAKING: Special Counsel Details Trump's "Increasingly Desperate" Attempts To Overturn 2020 Election

 

From ABC News:

Special counsel Jack Smith has outlined new details of former President Donald Trump and his allies' sweeping and "increasingly desperate" efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, in a blockbuster court filing Wednesday aimed at defending Smith's prosecution of Trump following the Supreme Court's July immunity ruling.

Trump intentionally lied to the public, state election officials, and his own vice president in an effort to cling to power after losing the election, while privately describing some of the claims of election fraud as "crazy," prosecutors alleged in the 165-page filing.

"When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office," the filing said. "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."

When Trump's effort to overturn the election through lawsuits and fraudulent electors failed to change the outcome of the election, prosecutors allege that the former president fomented violence, with prosecutors describing Trump as directly responsible for "the tinderbox that he purposely ignited on January 6."

"The defendant also knew that he had only one last hope to prevent Biden's certification as President: the large and angry crowd standing in front of him. So for more than an hour, the defendant delivered a speech designed to inflame his supporters and motivate them to march to the Capitol," Smith wrote.

The lengthy filing -- which includes an 80-page summary of the evidence gathered by investigators -- outlines multiple instances in which Trump allegedly heard from advisers who disproved his allegations, yet continued to spread his claims of outcome-determinative voter fraud, prosecutors said.

"It doesn't matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell," Trump allegedly told members of his family following the 2020 election, the filing said.

According to prosecutors, Trump "laid the groundwork for his crimes well before" Election Day, including by sowing doubt among his supporters and planning to declare victory immediately, despite multiple advisers telling him that the results were unlikely to be finalized on Election Day.

Prosecutors allege that Trump and his allies "sought to create chaos" at polling places -- including one instance when a campaign employee encouraged a colleague to "make them riot" at an ongoing vote count in Detroit -- which the former president later used to support his claims of voter fraud.

"The throughline of these efforts was deceit: the defendant's and co-conspirators' knowingly false claims of election fraud," the filing said.

In addition to outlining the instances when Trump was directly corrected about his allegations of voter fraud, the filing said Trump privately called allegations of voter fraud made by his lawyer Sidney Powell as "crazy" -- despite employing similar arguments to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election, prosecutors allege... (our emphasis)

From all indications, Trump's intending to follow the same gameplan, with variations based on experience.   He needed to be stopped then, he needs to be stopped now.

Read the full filing here (pdf), for new details on the conspiracy that haven't been previously known.

More to follow.

BONUS:  from the Factual Proffer (p. 3 of the filing) --

When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office. 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 (the “targeted states”). 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. The throughline of these efforts was deceit: the defendant’s and co-conspirators’ knowingly false claims of election fraud. They used these lies in furtherance of three conspiracies: 1) 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); 2) a conspiracy to obstruct the official proceeding in which Congress certifies the legitimate results of the presidential election; and 3) a conspiracy against millions of Americans to vote and have their votes counted.

That just about sums it up, with details following.

(Image:  via CNN)

Trump's Election Coup Trial Back On Track

 

ICYMI with all the campaign news, the Middle East powder keg, and the Olympics, the effort to bring the racist convicted felon Malignant Loser to justice in the 2020 election coup criminal case is back with Judge Chutkan.  While a trial prior to the November election is out of the question (thanks, illegitimate MAGAt Republican Supreme Court!), there's going to be a renewed legal spotlight placed on the would- be "president for life," starting August 9:

The stalled criminal case against Donald Trump for seeking to subvert the 2020 election is starting to move.

The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity — a breathtaking legal victory for Trump’s bid to sideline his criminal prosecutions — had kept the election-subversion case on ice for months. Even after the July 1 ruling, the high court’s rules required a one-month delay to give prosecutors the chance to ask the justices to reconsider the outcome.

On Friday, that window closed. The case was returned to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which took just minutes to send the matter back to the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been in a holding pattern since December awaiting the outcome of the immunity fight.

On Saturday, Chutkan took her first steps in the case in months, setting an August 16 hearing to consider setting a new schedule. She has asked for prosecutors and Trump to offer their own thinking on the matter in writing by August 9. The court session won’t force Trump off the campaign trail, since Chutkan said she won’t require him to be present.

Still, the flurry of actions signals new life for the gravest of the four criminal cases against Trump — and it comes at a time when other Trump cases have stalled. Special counsel Jack Smith charged the former president in August 2023 with four counts, alleging a sweeping conspiracy to disenfranchise millions of voters and pressure government officials to overturn the legitimate 2020 election results.

There appears to be no real prospect of a trial in the case before the November election, but some Trump critics have been eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court’s ministerial action of returning the case to the trial court, hoping that it results in a series of swift decisions from Chutkan that could again put Trump on the defensive...  (our emphasis)

On that last point, Judge Chutkan has already started with swift decisions in addition to the ones noted above, rejecting on Saturday the Malignant Loser's attempt to dismiss the case over bogus charges of political interference by President Biden:

... In the ruling, Chutkan said Trump repeatedly mischaracterized the charges against him, which describe far more than simply criminalizing his claimed belief that the 2020 election was stolen.

Rather, Chutkan ruled, the charges describe a sweeping attempt to manipulate and lie to government authorities in order to undermine the lawful 2020 election results. And Trump’s claim that Biden was secretly behind the prosecution relied on flimsy evidence and anonymously sourced articles that Chutkan said he described inaccurately...

This case will be shuttlecocking between Chutkan, the appeals court, and the illegitimate MAGAt Republican Supreme Court for months, no doubt.  But, as the article points out, there could be many opportunities for Special Counsel Smith to get evidence of the Malignant Loser's infamy into the public domain, especially if Chutkan allows

... a hearing to assess the effect of the immunity ruling on the evidence Smith intends to present. That proceeding could feature witness testimony from key figures in the case.

Trump opponents hope this “mini-trial” would showcase Trump’s ties to the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, and remind voters of the most chaotic day of Trump’s presidency, even if it doesn’t carry the same stakes as a jury trial...

This isn't over yet, and to quote a favorite Presidential candidate, "When we fight, we win."

(Photo illustration: via Politico / Getty Images)

Details Emerge About Fake Trump Electors Plot

According to e-mails and recordings of Trumpist co-conspirator Kenneth Chesebro in interviews with Michigan investigators, Trump and his loyalists organized a scheme to get fake elector slates to the Capitol on January 6 to overturn the election results. From CNN:

"Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail.

So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress, to try to get the documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence while he presided over the Electoral College certification.

The operatives even considered chartering a jet to ensure the files reached Washington, DC, in time for the January 6, 2021, proceeding, according to emails and recordings obtained by CNN.

The new details provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the chaotic last-minute effort to keep Donald Trump in office. The fake electors scheme features prominently in special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal indictment against the former president, and some of the officials who were involved have spoken to Smith’s investigators.

The emails and recordings also indicate that a top Trump campaign lawyer was part of 11th-hour discussions about delivering the fake elector certificates to Pence, potentially undercutting his testimony to the House select committee that investigated January 6 that he had passed off responsibility and didn’t want to put the former vice president in a difficult spot.

These details largely come from pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who was an architect of the fake electors plot and is now a key cooperator in several state probes into the scheme. Chesebro pleaded guilty in October to a felony conspiracy charge in Georgia in connection with the electors’ plan, and has met with prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, who are investigating the sham GOP electors in their own states."  (our emphasis)

The story goes on to say that none other than Wisconsin's disgraceful, Putin-loving Sen. Ron Johnson (Sedition - WI) and "a Pennsylvania congressman" << cough >> Scott Perry << cough >> helped facilitate the effort to get the fake electors documents into Pence's hands on January 6. 

Special Counsel Jack Smith is coordinating with state investigations of the plot to defraud the public, including in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. Chesebro's cooperation with authorities will help Smith's January 6 case significantly.

(illustration: via americanoversight.org)

 

Lordy, There Are Tapes!

From the Detroit News:

Then-President Donald Trump personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to recordings reviewed by The Detroit News and revealed publicly for the first time.

On a Nov. 17, 2020, phone call, which also involved Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP Wayne County canvassers, they'd look "terrible" if they signed the documents after they first voted in opposition and then later in the same meeting voted to approve certification of the county’s election results, according to the recordings.

"We've got to fight for our country," said Trump on the recordings, made by a person who was present for the call with Palmer and Hartmann. "We can't let these people take our country away from us." 

McDaniel, a Michigan native and the leader of the Republican Party nationally, said at another point in the call, "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. ... We will get you attorneys."

To which Trump added: "We'll take care of that."

Palmer and Hartmann left the canvassers meeting without signing the official statement of votes for Wayne County, and the following day, they unsuccessfully attempted to rescind their votes in favor of certification, filing legal affidavits claiming they were pressured. 

The moves from Palmer, Hartmann and Trump, had they been successful, threatened to throw the statewide certification of Michigan's 2020 election into doubt.

The revelation of the contents of the call with the former president comes as he faces four counts of criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States and its voters of the rightful outcome of the election. Efforts to prevent certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in Michigan are an integral part of the indictment.

The call involving Trump, McDaniel, Hartmann and Palmer occurred within 30 minutes of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers meeting ending on Nov. 17, 2020, according to records reviewed by The News.

The recordings further demonstrated the direct involvement of Trump, as an incumbent president, with Republican officials in Michigan in a bid to undermine Biden's win and how some details of his efforts had remained secret as he launched a campaign to win back the White House in 2024...  (our emphasis)

There's much more detail and background at the link.  Sleazy RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel may also have some more legal exposure from the revelations in the recording, not to mention the Malignant Loser (see Tweet below).  She's also been implicated in election tampering in Georgia and Arizona.

There had been earlier reporting on the existence of this and other Malignant Loser calls, including the oft- played one to Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger;  this is the first time outside of that where there's been a recording revealed of which we're aware.  It's unclear from what source the Detroit News got access to the recording.  We only play lawyers on this blog, so we don't know if this somehow taints the smoking gun evidence or not.  We have to see how this plays out as Special Counsel Smith's prosecution stays in high gear for now.

BONUS:  This guy doesn't play a lawyer, he is one --

 

Trump and Ronna McDaniel - Offering a thing of value to a public official to violate oath of office = a crime. ⬇️ https://t.co/ovJ6y1g9pj

— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) December 22, 2023

(Image:  via GIPHY)

 

Battleground Fake Electors Update

 

Well, On Wisconsin!

Ten Republicans who posed as fake electors for former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin and filed paperwork falsely saying he had won the battleground state have settled a civil lawsuit and admitted their actions were part of an effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory, attorneys who filed the case announced Wednesday.

Under the agreement, the fake electors acknowledged that Biden won the state, withdrew their filings and agreed not to serve as presidential electors in 2024 or any other election where Trump is on the ballot.

The 10 fake electors agreed to send a statement to the government offices that received the Electoral College votes saying that their actions were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.”

The settlement marks the first time that any Trump electors have revoked their filings sent to Congress purporting that Trump had won in seven battleground states. Nevada on Wednesday became the third state to criminally charge fake electors, following Georgia and Michigan. Trump faces charges in Georgia and in a federal investigation of his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.  [snip]

Under the settlement, the 10 fake electors promised to assist the Department of Justice with its ongoing investigation. They also agreed to help the Democrats as they continue their lawsuit against [Trump's Wisconsin attorney Jim] Troupis and [Trump fake electors attorney Kenneth] Chesebro... (our emphasis)

Speaking of Nevada --

A Nevada grand jury has indicted the six Republicans — including the chair of the Nevada Republican Party — who falsely pledged Nevada’s electoral votes to Donald Trump following the 2020 election despite President Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, announced the indictments Wednesday of state party chair Michael McDonald, national committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, Clark County Republican Party chair Jesse Law (who announced plans to run for state Assembly on Wednesday), state party vice chair Jim Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice. 

In a press release, the attorney general’s office said all six individuals had been indicted on two felony charges — offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument by submitting fraudulent documents to state and federal officials. The charges carry penalties of category C and D felonies, respectively, with punishments up to a maximum of four and five years in prison and a minimum of one year in prison. A grand jury in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County indicted the six Republicans.

“When the efforts to undermine faith in our democracy began after the 2020 election, I made it clear that I would do everything in my power to defend the institutions of our nation and our state,” Ford said in a statement. “We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged. Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”...  (our emphasis)

Not to mention Arizona --

Last week, a key figure in the 2020 fake elector scheme traveled to Nevada, where this week, six fake electors were indicted.

Trump-aligned lawyer Kenneth Chesebro wrote memos detailing how Republicans could send false slates of presidential electors to Congress in an attempt to give Donald Trump the win or at least delay the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

And on Monday, Chesebro is scheduled to travel to Arizona to meet with investigators from Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office, according to the Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin, 10 fake electors settled a civillawsuit this week, admitting their actions were part of a scheme to overturn Biden’s victory.

I picture Arizona’s fake electors, breathing deeply into paper bags... (our emphasis)

With Fani Willis' Malignant Loser RICO trial in Georgia and the actions taken in Wisconsin and Michigan, the broader fake electors scheme to un- Constitutionally keep the Malignant Loser in office is being systematically exposed and the participants, up to and (eventually) including the Malignant Loser himself, are facing consequences for their felonious activities.  Lots of people will be breathing deeply into paper bags from now on.

(Photo:  10 Wisconsin fake electors meeting on December 14, 2020 / Dane County Circuit Court)

Most Americans: Trump Guilty In Federal Election Subversion Case

 

From the latest Politico/ Ipsos poll (click to enlarge):

If the evidence that will be publicly presented in the case is nearly as compelling as the information in Special Counsel Smith's indictment (spoiler alert:  it will be), the "guilty" numbers will rise.  Of course, it only takes one person on a jury to overturn the best investigative and legal work.  But four Grand Juries in four very different jurisdictions made up of a cross- section of citizens have already seen evidence pointing to the Malignant Loser's probable guilt, and have issued indictments, so... 

Now, let's have that early trial date that most Americans also want!