Donald Trump 鈥渞esorted to crimes鈥 after losing the 2020 election, federal prosecutors said in a court filing unsealed Wednesday that argues that the former U.S. president disregarded the advice of his vice-president and other aides and is not entitled to immunity from prosecution over his failed bid to remain in power.
The filing was submitted by special counsel Jack Smith's team following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents for official acts they take in office, narrowing the scope of the prosecution charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the results of the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The purpose of the brief is to convince U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that the offenses charged in the indictment are private, rather than official, acts and can therefore remain part of the indictment as the case moves forward.
鈥淎lthough the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one,鈥 Smith鈥檚 team said, adding, 鈥淲hen the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office."
Those include efforts to persuade former vice-president Mike Pence to refuse to certify the counting of the electoral votes on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021.
The filing includes details of conversations between Trump and Pence, including a private lunch the two had on Nov. 12, 2020, in which Pence 鈥渞eiterated a face-saving option鈥 for Trump, telling him, 鈥渄on鈥檛 concede but recognize the process is over,鈥 according to prosecutors.
In another private lunch days later, Pence urged Trump to accept the results of the election and run again in 2024.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know, 2024 is so far off,鈥 Trump told him, according to the filing.
But Trump 鈥渄isregarded鈥 Pence 鈥渋n the same way he disregarded dozens of court decisions that unanimously rejected his and his allies鈥 legal claims, and that he disregarded officials in the targeted states 鈥 including those in his own party 鈥 who stated publicly that he had lost and that his specific fraud allegations were false,鈥 prosecutors wrote.
Trump鈥檚 鈥渟teady stream of disinformation鈥 in the weeks after the election culminated in his speech at the Ellipse on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, in which Trump 鈥渦sed these lies to inflame and motivate the large and angry crowd of his supporters to march to the Capitol and disrupt the certification proceeding,鈥 prosecutors wrote.
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Donald Trump 'resorted to crimes' after losing the 2020 election, federal prosecutors said in a court filing unsealed Wednesday.
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