Prosecutors plan to show a longstanding pattern of threats and unsubstantiated claims from Trump
When former President Donald J. Trump goes on trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, federal prosecutors plan to tell a sweeping story, informing the jury about everything from his support of the far-right Proud Boys to his decade-long history of making baseless claims of election fraud, according to court papers released Tuesday.
Prosecutors said in the papers that they also planned to present evidence about how Trump and his allies had threatened his opponents and encouraged violence against them over the years. And they indicated that they intended to implicate Mr. Trump more closely in the violence that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, than the indictment in the case initially suggested.
In addition, prosecutors said they planned to show how the former president had continued to show “steadfast support” for the people involved in the Jan. 6 events — including Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, and a group of inmates at the District of Columbia prison calling themselves the ‘Jan. 6 Chorus.”
“Defendant’s embrace of the January 6 rioters is evidence of his intentions during the charged conspiracies because it demonstrates that these individuals acted as he instructed them,” prosecutors wrote. “Indeed, this evidence shows that the rioters’ disruption of the certification process is exactly what the defendant intended on January 6.”
The court papersoriginally filed under seal Monday night in Federal District Court in Washington, contained a series of allegations against the former president that prosecutors for Special Counsel Jack Smith want to introduce at the election interference trial, even though they technically fall outside the scope of the conspiracy charges that Trump is confronted.
Under federal rules of evidence, prosecutors are allowed to introduce evidence at trial that predates or postdates the scope of an indictment if it can help them prove a suspect’s motive or intent to a jury.
The election subversion indictment accuses Mr. Trump of three overlapping conspiracies, stretching from around Election Day 2020 to the day the Capitol was attacked. These include illegally trying to overturn his loss to President Biden, depriving millions of people of the right to have their votes counted and disrupting the lawful transition of power.
But the documents released Tuesday with a handful of redactions suggest prosecutors want to tell the jury a much broader story. That story includes what they describe as Trump’s extensive history of using lies, retaliation and threats of violence to get what he wants.
For example, prosecutors told Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, that they planned to show the jury a Twitter message that Mr. Trump wrote in November 2012. The message, they said, contained “baseless claims” that voting machines had switched the votes of Mitt Romney, who was then the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, to President Barack Obama.
They also want to tell the jury about Trump’s repeated claims during his 2016 presidential campaign that the election was — or would be — marred by “widespread voter fraud.”
Similarly, the papers said Mr. Smith’s team planned to report instances in which Mr. Trump “refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of presidential power if he lost the election.” They cited a press conference in September 2020 where Mr. Trump, when asked if he would resign in defeat, said: “Well, we’ll have to see what happens.”
Prosecutors said they planned to present evidence that an employee of Trump’s 2020 campaign “encouraged riots” at a vote-counting center in Detroit after learning the results were “in favor” of Biden. Around the same time, the court papers say, a crowd of people entered the center “and began unlawfully and aggressively questioning the vote count.”
Mr. Trump’s “endorsement and encouragement of violence” will also be part of the broader trial story, according to the papers.
For example, prosecutors want to tell the jury about Mr. Trump’s comment during a presidential debate with Mr. Biden in September 2020, when he told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” The far-right group ultimately played a leading role in the attack on the Capitol, breaching barricades and attacking police, and four of its members, including Mr. Tarrio, were ultimately convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy.
Prosecutors also want to tell the jury how Mr. Trump, during an appearance on “Meet the Press” just three months ago, complained that Mr. Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and other Jan. 6 defendants “have been treated terribly.” “In addition, they want to report Trump’s continued support for the so-called prison choir, many of whose members, prosecutors emphasized, were “so violent” on January 6 that their provisional release would pose a danger to the public.”
Mr. Trump’s legal team will have a chance to challenge whether Mr. Smith’s prosecutors can offer all this evidence at trial. Judge Chutkan will ultimately decide what should be allowed.
The government’s filing was the latest set of court documents laying out a road map for what the election interference lawsuit could look like. The procedure is currently set to start in early March.
Last week, Trump’s lawyers filed papers suggesting they plan to use the lawsuit to attack the “deep state” and question several government agencies’ findings that the election was fair.