A chorus of top Republicans told Trump repeatedly that his claims of widespread voter fraud were false.
As Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, a chorus of top Republicans told him repeatedly that his claims of widespread voter fraud were false.
That pushback now sits at the heart of the federal indictment brought against Trump this week in the Justice Department investigation of his attempts to cling to power.
Special counsel Jack Smith is setting out to show that Trump knew he was lying when he unleashed his torrent of election falsehoods that culminated with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol — an important part for convicting Trump on the four charges he’s facing.
To that end, the indictment lays out a drumbeat of episodes — many of them already public — when Trump was told that bogus statements about fraudulent ballots being counted or votes being flipped to Joe Biden were false. They came from a range of people in his orbit, including White House lawyers, administration appointees, state GOP officials and his campaign staffers. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
The indictment references at least nine administration officials, among others, who told Trump that the election was not stolen or that his schemes to remain in the White House were untenable. The officials are not named in the indictment, but some of their identities can be discerned by matching descriptions of their activities in the indictment with public reporting. Here are the key people who corrected Trump on his election lies and what they said:
Trump peppered his vice president with false claims about election fraud in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 riot, pressuring him multiple times to use his role in certifying the vote to keep him in power. Per the indictment Pence pushed back in a phone call on Christmas Day. “You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome,” he said.
