Special counsel Jack Smith’s office argued in a court filing Wednesday that former President Donald Trump is responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
What You Need To Know
- Special counsel Jack Smith’s office argued in a court filing Wednesday that former President Donald Trump is responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol
- Smith’s team was responding to a motion by Trump’s attorneys earlier this month asking Judge Tanya Chuktan to dismiss the federal election interference case against the former president in Washington
- Prosecutors said "the superseding indictment plainly alleges that the defendant willfully caused his supporters to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the proceeding"
- In a statement to Spectrum News on Wednesday, the Trump campaign said, "Radical Democrats are hell-bent on interfering in the presidential election on behalf of Lyin’ Kamala Harris"
Smith’s team was responding to a motion by Trump’s attorneys earlier this month asking Judge Tanya Chuktan to dismiss the federal election interference case against the former president in Washington.
The “defendant fails to identify any pleading flaw in the superseding indictment warranting its dismissal,” prosecutors said in the latest document.
Trump’s lawyers argued August’s superseding indictment “stretches generally applicable statutes beyond their breaking point based on false claims that President Trump is somehow responsible for events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
But prosecutors said Wednesday that contrary “to the defendant’s claim that he bears no factual or legal responsibility for the ‘events on January 6,’ the superseding indictment plainly alleges that the defendant willfully caused his supporters to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the proceeding by summoning them to Washington, D.C., and then directing them to march to the Capitol to pressure the Vice President and legislators to reject the legitimate certificates and instead rely on the fraudulent electoral certificates.
“Those allegations link the defendant’s actions on January 6 directly to his efforts to corruptly obstruct the certification proceeding,” they added.
Trump’s attorneys say the case should be dropped against the former president after the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June limiting the scope for when defendants can be charged with obstruction of an official proceeding — a charge Trump and hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants have faced.
The Supreme Court decision, however, did not apply to part of the law that makes it illegal for someone to corruptly alter, destroy or conceal a record or document with the intent of preventing it from being used in an official proceeding.
Unlike those who stormed the Capitol, Trump’s case directly relates to documents, Smith’s team said. Trump, the Republican nominee in next month's presidential election, is accused of participating in a scheme to submit slates of fake electors to Congress as he falsely alleged widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election.
“In language that applies directly to the allegations here, the Supreme Court explained that … criminal prohibition includes ‘creating false evidence,’” the prosecutors’ filing said.
In a statement to Spectrum News on Wednesday, the Trump campaign said: “Radical Democrats are hell-bent on interfering in the presidential election on behalf of Lyin’ Kamala Harris. President Trump is dominating this race and Crazed Liberals throughout the Deep State are freaking out. As mandated by the Supreme Court’s historic decision on Presidential Immunity and other vital jurisprudence, this entire case is a sham and a partisan, Unconstitutional Witch Hunt that should be dismissed entirely—as should ALL of the remaining Democrat hoaxes.”
Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed the criminal prosecutions against him are being orchestrated by the Biden-Harris administration. There is no evidence to support the allegation, and Biden and the Justice Department have both denied coordinating with each other on Trump’s cases.
In their filing earlier this month, Trump’s attorneys had noted the obstruction law was enacted following the collapse of the energy company Enron, a scandal that saw the widespread destruction of documents. They argued that case “bears no resemblance to the allegations in the Superseding Indictment.”
Trump faces the same four charges in the superseding indictment that he did in the original indictment last year: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct a federal proceeding, obstruction of a federal proceeding and conspiracy against rights. He has pleaded not guilty.
Smith was forced to seek a new indictment — with a pared down explanation of the charges — after the Supreme Court ruled that sitting presidents have a certain level of criminal immunity. The special counsel argues Trump was acting as a private citizen when he allegedly tried to subvert the election results.
On Jan. 6, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, sending lawmakers who convened to vote on certifying Joe Biden’s election victory scrambling to safety. The riot followed a nearby Trump rally, which the then-president had urged his supporters to attend. There, he repeated false election fraud claims and directed them to march toward the Capitol.