In a filing on Wednesday, special counsel Jack Smith’s team argued that former President Donald Trump was acting as a private candidate for office, not as president, when he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss. The Supreme Court ruled that Trump had immunity for some actions taken as president, but prosecutors could proceed with charges related to his private crimes. A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Trump in August, adjusting the case to comply with the Supreme Court’s order.
According to Smith’s team, Trump resorted to crimes to try to stay in office after his loss, launching desperate plans to overturn election results in several states he had lost. Trump allegedly knew his claims about the election were false and relied on campaign employees and volunteers to carry out the scheme.
The filing stated that Trump acted as a candidate when he pursued criminal means to disrupt the government’s function of collecting and counting votes, a function in which the president has no official role. Trump was reportedly informed that early election night results could be misleading and declared he would declare victory before all the ballots were counted. He began laying the groundwork for this by suggesting to supporters that he would only lose if there was fraud.
The case against Trump is ongoing, and updates are expected.
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