Donald Trump is at the center of one of the most serious accusations yet. The Department of Justice (DoJ), through Special Counsel Jack Smith, has accused the former president of staging a “private criminal effort” to overthrow the 2020 general elections.
In a detailed 165-page court document, Smith outlined how Trump and his allies used multiple illegal strategies to interfere with the results of the election that confirmed Joe Biden as President.
Trump’s legal defense and court battle
Trump’s response to this latest legal blow? He claimed presidential immunity. The former president insists that his actions after the 2020 election should be protected because he was the sitting president.
The case made its way to the Supreme Court earlier this year, where they ruled that presidential immunity applies only to “public acts” done in the capacity of the president.
“Private acts,” as Smith pointed out, are not protected. The special counsel is now asking District Judge Tanya Chutkan to make a clear distinction between the two.
The accused presidential aspirant was acting as a candidate, pushing his own agenda to stay in power. He and his team allegedly attempted to overturn the 2020 election results in seven key states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Smith pointed out that Trump had no official role in the vote-counting process. Three days before the election, one of his allies told supporters that:
“Trump’s just going to declare victory. That doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just going to say it.”
From there, the scheme snowballed. By December, Trump’s attorneys were pressuring officials in Michigan to throw out election results.
They even claimed that Georgia’s legislature was ready to change the results in Trump’s favor. According to the filing, the former president himself was personally involved in phone calls with Republican legislators in Pennsylvania.
In those calls, he allegedly ordered them to “turn around” the results.
The legal woes keep growing
Since leaving office, Trump has faced four different criminal charges. These cases are not going away, and none will be resolved before the 2024 election.
The most publicized cases involved hush money payments made during his time in Manhattan. Though he was convicted, the sentencing won’t happen until after the election.
Trump was accused of mishandling classified documents too. A Florida judge dismissed that case.
Not one to stay quiet, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to rant about the DoJ, calling it a “hit job” by the Democrats.
“This is egregious PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT, and should not have been released right before the Election.”
He says the Justice Department is being “weaponized” against him and that his enemies are “HELL BENT” on keeping him from power.
He then added that, “WHETHER NOW THE FULLY DEBUNKED RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, IRAN, IRAN, IRAN, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, 51 INTELLIGENCE AGENTS, SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, IMPEACHMENT HOAX NUMBER ONE, IMPEACHMENT HOAX NUMBER TWO, OR ANY OF THE OTHER SCAMS, THIS ILLEGAL ACTION TAKEN BY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, INCLUDING THEIR RAID ON MAR-A-LAGO FOR A CASE THAT WAS DISMISSED, WILL END JUST LIKE ALL OF THE OTHERS – WITH COMPLETE VICTORY FOR ‘PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.’”
He ended his rant by again denying any wrongdoing, claiming that he didn’t rig the 2020 election. Instead, he says, “they did.”
