But legal scholars say the Supreme Court may intervene yet again to aid the former president.
The evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s mammoth filing in Donald Trump’s election interference case as “utterly damning,” legal experts told Salon, but the Supreme Court could intervene yet again to aid the former president.
Smith’s much-anticipated filing on Wednesday provided the most complete picture of the case against Trump. The special counsel described Trump’s campaign to overturn the election results as “private” after the Supreme Court shielded him from charges related to the core functions of the presidency.
“He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office,” Smith wrote, adding that Trump’s actions were part of a quest to “advance his own self-interest and perpetuate himself in power, contrary to the will of the people.”
Although much of the filing covered ground that had already been publicly known, the filing did include new details. For instance, Smith lays out former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s involvement, including that Trump allegedly spoke to Bannon on Jan. 5, just hours before Bannon predicted that “all hell is going to break loose” the next day.
The filing also describes a push by campaign staffers to “create chaos” at election facilities in places like Philadelphia and Detroit. The filing describes a staffer saying “make them riot” in reference to protesters at a Detroit vote counting center and upon learning that an incoming batch of ballots leaned towards supporting President Joe Biden.
Prosecutors further disclosed that Trump planned to “fight like hell” in the election regardless of the results, with a staffer telling prosecutors that he overheard Trump telling his daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law Jared Kuhner that “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”
Hofstra University law professor James Sample told Salon that the filing was “thorough, detailed, and — in a world where objective facts mattered — would be utterly damning.
