Trump erupts in incoherent rant after a new court brief details how he “resorted to crime” to oppose the 2020 election

A new court brief filed Wednesday by special counsel Jack Smith details how Donald Trump “resorted to crime to stay in office” after the 2020 election, and Trump himself is up in arms about it.

Expanding on his usual, tired collection of platitudes and attacks on critics, Trump lashed out at the “deranged” Smith and the “Radical Left Democrats based in Washington, DC” in several incoherent rants on Truth Social

Trump first complained that the motion was “false-filled and unconstitutional,” then added an irrelevant insult against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz. He then launched into arbitrary, all-caps accusations that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden were the ones trying to “weapon American democracy and interfere in the 2024 presidential election.”

This culminated in a somewhat lazy attempt to dismiss the words of the court filing when he said his enemies were “HIGHLY ATTEMPT to continue using the Justice Department as a weapon to stay in power.”

The former president then followed up with another tirade about Truth Social, in which he insisted – referring in the third person, of course – that he was “dominating” the 2024 race, and before you ask: Yes, he claimed that he is ahead of Harris in the polls (at this point he is not). He also added his traditional references to “Deep State” and “Witch Hunt.”

This was followed by a lengthy tirade in all caps that reads less like the statement of a functioning former US president and more like MAGA Mad Libs, which we quote verbatim:

“WHETHER IT’S FULLY CONCLUDING RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, IRAN, IRAN, IRAN, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, 51 SECRET AGENTS, SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax number two, or any of the other frauds, THESE ILLEGAL ACTIONS OF JUST MINISTRY OF IZ, INCLUDING THEIR TAKEOVER AT MAR-A-LAGO FOR A DISMISSED CASE, ENDING LIKE ALL THE OTHERS – IN COMPLETE VICTORY FOR “PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.” Make America Great Again!” he posted.

Trump concluded by metaphorically taking his ball and going home, angry: “I didn’t rig the 2020 election, they did!”

Trump is not accused of rigging the election, he is accused of actions that were witnessed by millions of people: his efforts in 2020 and early 2021 to illegally overturn the election results culminated in his incitement of the deadly attack on the Capitol January 6, 2021.

Prosecution of these crimes was delayed earlier this year due to the Supreme Court’s stunning ruling in Trump v. United States, which created a previously non-existent concept of presidential immunity from prosecution. That immunity was granted to vaguely defined “official” actions that SCOTUS said would have to be determined by lower courts, leading to delays that have virtually guaranteed that Trump will not be tried until after this year’s election.

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a revised indictment in August charging Trump against the United States; The 165-page motion filed Wednesday lays out the new case in detail (often redacted).

It is divided into four main sections. In the first, prosecutors describe their evidence against Trump. The second part describes the legal issues related to presidential immunity. The third section sets out what is and is not covered by presidential immunity, emphasizing that “nothing the government intends to present to the jury is protected by presidential immunity.” The fourth and final section describes why the court should try Trump.

“The defendant maintains that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it involved official conduct. Not like that,” the letter begins.

“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crime to remain in office,” the filing also states. “His efforts included lying to state officials to get them to ignore the actual vote counts; Manufacturing fraudulent electoral votes in targeted states; attempting to persuade Vice President Michael R. Pence, in his role as President of the Senate, to prevent Congress from certifying the election by using the defendant’s fraudulent electoral votes; and when all else failed, on January 6, 2021, he sent an angry crowd of supporters to the United States Capitol to prevent certification by Congress.”

The common theme is “fraud,” the filing continues.

“At its core, the defendant’s plan was a private criminal operation,” Smith writes later in the filing. “In his capacity as a candidate, the defendant used deception to target every phase of the electoral process, which, according to the Constitution, ECA and state law, includes the notification by states to the federal government of the selection of their representative electors based on the… “Referendum in the State; the meeting of these voters to cast their votes in accordance with the popular vote; and the counting of electoral votes by Congress in a certification process.”

Prosecutors believe Trump told his advisers in the weeks before the election that if many Democrats cast their votes by mail and therefore had their votes counted after Election Day, he would “simply declare victory.” “before all the ballots were counted and there would be no winner.” was projected.” An unnamed consultant began implementing the plan.

Trump is also accused of asking former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to challenge the integrity of the election. Trump’s campaign also sought to challenge Biden’s victories in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia and Michigan. The campaign then made allegations of fraud that were untrue and attempted to appoint other electors in response.

“As recently as January, the conspirators attempted to keep the entire nature of the election schedule secret,” the filing also states.

You can read the entire application in full here.

The post Trump erupts into incoherent rant after new court brief details how he ‘resorted to crime’ to oppose 2020 election appeared first on TheWrap.