Background: Special counsel Jack Smith. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Inset: Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks to the crowd during a caucus event, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette via AP)
In a filing entered Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith offered a taste of what evidence prosecutors will present at Donald Trump’s impending election subversion trial in Washington, D.C., including records they say reflect Trump’s track record of making baseless claims of election fraud since as far back as 2012.
In the nine-page brief before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, prosecutor Molly Gaston cited Trump’s eerily familiar sentiment that voting machines had been rigged against Mitt Romney in 2012 when he ran against Barack Obama.
The same thing occurred in 2016, Gaston wrote, when Trump “claimed repeatedly with no basis, that there was widespread voter fraud including through public statements and tweets.”
These details, while far separated in time from the events of Jan. 6, 2021, are still relevant and should be considered admissible evidence, the prosecutors urged.
The special counsel also indicated that they would enter evidence at trial that showed Trump’s history of remarks where he “repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power,” the filing states.
It was during a Sept. 23, 2020, White House press conference when Trump was asked if he would commit to a peaceful transition of power if he lost the 2020 election and he refused.
“We’ll have to see what happens. You know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster,” Trump told reporters in 2020.
When a reporter pressed him and then asked whether that would be a peaceful transfer of power, Trump replied: “I know. I know. We want to have — get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very trans — we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it.”
Trump then exited the briefing in a hurry, citing an “emergency call” that had come up.
He used the same strategy in 2016, Gaston wrote Tuesday. During a presidential debate that year, Trump was asked if he would accept the results and he said he would “look at it at the time.”
When a moderator pressed him, Trump said: “What I’m saying is that I will tell you in time. I’ll keep you in suspense. OK?”
All of this goes toward showing Trump’s intent in 2021 to perpetrate a conspiracy meant to overturn the results of the 2020 election, prosecutors argue.
This story is developing.
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