After U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan released a filing from special counsel Jack Smith regarding his investigation into former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, Trump received a brutal reminder when he complained that the authorities are interfering in November's election.
Following the Supreme Court's July ruling that former presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts performed while in office but not for unofficial acts, Smith revised Trump's original indictment pertaining to his actions before, during, and after the insurrection of January 6, 2021, leading to a grand jury reindicting Trump last month.
The superseding indictment omits certain specific allegations against Trump, but he still faces the same four charges as in the original August 2023 indictment: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Smith's brief, filed last week and made public yesterday, seeks to persuade Chutkan, who is presiding over the federal election subversion case, that Trump's alleged actions were personal rather than official, and should therefore remain part of the indictment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges, asserting that the case is politically motivated against him. He also took to Truth Social to criticize the Department of Justice (DOJ), accusing it of engaging in "election interference."
He wrote:
"FOR 60 DAYS PRIOR TO AN ELECTION, THE DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE IS SUPPOSED TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT WOULD TAINT OR INTERFERE WITH A CASE. THEY DISOBEYED THEIR OWN RULE IN FAVOR OF COMPLETE AND TOTAL ELECTION INTERFERENCE."
"I DID NOTHING WRONG, THEY DID! THE CASE IS A SCAM, JUST LIKE ALL OF THE OTHERS, INCLUDING THE DOCUMENTS CASE, WHICH WAS DISMISSED!"
You can see what he wrote below.
@TrumpsDailyPosts/X; @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
It raises eyebrows that a man indicted for interfering in an election would project, accusing others of interfering in an election—but it's also worth noting that Trump didn't have such angry things to say when former FBI Director James Comey released his own "October surprise" ahead of the 2016 election.
On October 28, 2016, mere days before voters went to the polls, Comey reopened the agency's investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Comey's decision to revive the investigation just 11 days before the election is widely regarded as one of several factors that contributed to Trump's unexpected victory in November.
At the time, Trump praised Comey, saying "it took a lot of guts" for him and the DOJ to make the announcement right before Election Day:
“And I have to give the FBI credit. That was so bad what happened originally. And it took guts for Director Comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had where they’re trying to protect her from criminal prosecution. You know that. It took a lot of guts.”
People were quick to remind the former president of the events of 8 years ago.
Smith's brief stated that Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, informed him "he had seen no evidence of outcome-determinative fraud in the election" and urged Trump to acknowledge his 2020 election loss.
However, Trump "disregarded" 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," the brief noted.
While a lengthy congressional investigation and the indictment document have already detailed Trump's efforts to overturn the election results, the filing presents new insights from Trump's closest aides.
These narratives reveal a president becoming "increasingly desperate" and turning to "deceit to target every stage of the electoral process," even as his grip on the presidency weakened.
More evidence may emerge in the coming days. A substantial appendix accompanying Wednesday's filing is still under seal, and the judge has requested that both parties provide input on how much of it should be released publicly. The appendix includes grand jury transcripts and notes from FBI interviews gathered over the course of the yearslong investigation.
