Today was an important day for the 2024 election as well as for the future of the rule of law in the US.
First, the BACKGROUND. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith filed charges against Donald Trump because of his actions to planned and encouraged the January 6, 2021, coup attempt to overturn the results of the 202o election. Charges were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the case was assigned to Judge Tanya Sue Chutkan, one of the district judges.
Trump’s lawyers appealed to the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS), claiming that Trump’s actions were part of his official duties and thus he was immune from criminal charges. SCOTUS sent the case back to Judge Chutkan.
Smith re-drafted his indictment, making it clear that what Trump did was NOT part of his official duties and thus he was not immune from prosecution.
Now, what happened on Oct 2. Judge Chutkan ordered that 165 pages of Smith’s 188-page indictment be unsealed and released to the public.
The indictment is damning for Trump. Smith shows clearly that:
- Trump conspired with many individuals who either were not government officials or were not government officials in positions that made their conversations with Trump immune or privileged.
- Much of Trump’s communication was over unofficial means — personal cell phones, personal email, and other unofficial means.
- As President, Trump had not authority under the Constitution or law to make any decisions regarding the outcome of the election. Trump’s only role in the election was that of candidate, therefore, his actions as a candidate do not merit immunity.
This re-worked set of charges make clear to everyone, including the Supreme Court, that Trump acted outside of his official duties when he tried repeatedly to overturn the results of the presidential election.
And remember, a little over 30 days until the election, this evidence shows the former president actively and deliberately trying to subvert the will of the American people, betrayed many of the very same voters who will be going to the polls to decide whether they will afford Trump the office again that he so thoroughly defiled.
The MAGA Majority had their one shot at this prosecution, and they chopped off everything they were able in the way of “official duties” to give their cult leader an advantage. But Trump’s criminality outstripped even their ability to stop the tidal wave that arrived today.
It would have been better for Trump and his Court protectors if they had let this go to trial, appealing at the end when they’d seen all of the evidence, and crafting their defenses to fit the actual crimes.
But if it was their intent to keep this from influencing voters before the election, they just made it worse. A trial would have included more than this presentation from the prosecution. And Trump is currently without a defense that directly challenges any of it.
Judge Chutkan knew the score here. This is all about the American public, if the question is whether Trump should be allowed to serve as president again. She wouldn’t send a nurse credibly accused of murdering patients back to work at the same hospital, or any other, without making clear to someone more than herself and her staff, categorically, the evidence she had available that she was able to reveal.
It’s not just this judge. Every other judge, other than those clearly in the tank, hearing Trump charges and his co-defendants’, has spoken about the seriousness and gravity of the crimes alleged and their importance to the nation.
The speed and surety with which the 165-page filing was allowed by Judge Chutkan underscores our judiciary’s own determination that these crimes are to be accountable to not only the courts, but to the public as well.
Read the filing here.
SO — WHAT DO WE DO? We MUST tell all our friends about this development and how this proves that Trump is unfit to serve in any elected office. The proof of his lawlessness, his disregard for our laws and Constitution, and his willingness to do WHATEVER.IT.TAKES. to win is now clear.
Here is the lead paragraph from Smith’s filing.
The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct. Not so. Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one. Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted—a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role. In Trump v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 2312 (2024), the Supreme Court held that presidents are immune from prosecution for certain official conduct— including the defendant’s use of the Justice Department in furtherance of his scheme, as was alleged in the original indictment—and remanded to this Court to determine whether the remaining allegations against the defendant are immunized. The answer to that question is no. This motion provides a comprehensive account of the defendant’s private criminal conduct; sets forth the legal framework created by Trump for resolving immunity claims; applies that framework to establish that none of the defendant’s charged conduct is immunized because it either was unofficial or any presumptive immunity is rebutted; and requests the relief the Government seeks, which is, at bottom, this: that the Court determine that the defendant must stand trial for his private crimes as would any other citizen.
