Trump pursued ‘multiple criminal means’ to overturn election, new special counsel filing claims

Special counsel Jack Smith has outlined a sprawling criminal case against Donald Trump for his attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, detailing for the first time the former president’s “increasingly desperate efforts” to cling to power with “knowingly false claims of election fraud.”

Trump intentionally lied to voters, election officials, and his own vice president Mike Pence in what amounted to a criminal effort to stay in office, culminating in his failure to stop a mob that tried to do it with violence, according to the document filed in federal court in Washington DC on Wednesday.

“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” the filing says. “With private co-conspirators, the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost.”

The stunning 165-page document — the fullest picture yet of Smith’s case — is full of new details about Trump’s alleged scheme, providing the court with a blueprint for evidence that prosecutors intend to show to a jury at trial.

Smith’s filing follows his renewed attempt to prosecute Trump in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision that granted him some immunity from criminal prosecution for his spurious efforts to reverse his loss.

That new superseding indictment retains the same four core criminal charges against him, as Smith navigates a Supreme Court ruling that a president is “absolutely” immune from criminal prosecution for actions that stem from official duties in office, and retains “presumptive” immunity for actions in the “outer perimeter” of those duties.

Smith notes in the latest document that those