Former President Donald Trump, a 2024 presidential hopeful, speaks during a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on July 29, 2023.
Joed Viera | Afp | Getty Images
The brand new indictment of Donald Trump reveals previously unknown details about his and his allies’ efforts to forestall President Joe Biden from succeeding him within the White House in January 2021.
Those include a serious try to install Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as U.S. attorney general and the pressuring of Republican members of Congress to further delay certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory hours after a mob of Trump rioters swarmed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
And the indictment includes clear evidence that Trump knew he was not the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, at the same time as he publicly claimed otherwise.
The six alleged co-conspirators who’re mentioned prominently in Trump’s indictment aren’t identified by name — nevertheless it’s possible to deduce who most of them are from details sprinkled throughout the costs.
Replacing the attorney general
Co-conspirator 4 within the indictment is presumed to be Clark.
The indictment lays out how Clark, in December 2020 and January 2021, met and talked with Trump behind the backs of senior DOJ officials as he pushed false claims of election misconduct and the speculation that Vice President Mike Pence could reject slates of Biden electors.
DOJ leadership refused to endorse Clark’s efforts and warned him against meeting with Trump without authorization, but that didn’t stop him, the indictment says.
Jeffrey Clark, former acting assistant attorney general, arrives for Rep. Matt Gaetz’s Jan. 6 field hearing within the Capitol on June 13, 2023.
Bill Clark | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
On Jan. 3, 2021, Clark “met with the Defendant on the White House — again without having informed senior Justice Department officials — and accepted the Defendant’s offer that he change into Acting Attorney General,” the indictment says.
It was well-known that Trump backed off from a plan to make Clark the attorney general after the leadership of the DOJ told him they’d all resign if he did so. But Clark’s acceptance of that supply, and its being made, are latest details.
Clark floats Rebellion Act idea
On the identical day he accepted Trump’s job offer, Clark spoke with a deputy White House counsel.
“The previous month, the Deputy White House Counsel had informed [Trump] that ‘there isn’t any world, there isn’t any option through which you don’t leave the White House [o]n January twentieth,'” the indictment notes.
On Jan. 3, 2021, the counsel tried to dissuade Clark from taking the job as acting AG, the indictment says.
“The Deputy White House Counsel reiterated to Co-Conspirator 4 that there had not been outcome-determinative fraud within the election and that if the Defendant remained in office nonetheless, there could be ‘riots in every major city in america,'” the indictment says.
Clark responded, “Well, [Deputy White House Counsel], that is why there’s an Rebellion Act.”
The Rebellion Act authorizes a president to deploy U.S. military and National Guard forces inside america in response to civil disorder or riot.
Trump urged delay in certifying election after riot
Co-conspirator 1 within the indictment is presumed to be former Latest York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The indictment says that hours after a mob of Trump supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol, disrupting the certification of Biden’s victory by a joint session of Congress, Trump and Giuliani “attempted to use the violence and chaos on the Capitol by calling lawmakers to persuade them, based on knowingly false claims of election fraud, to delay the certification.”
Trump tried that night to achieve multiple U.S. senators as a part of that effort, the indictment says.
President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks as Trump supporters gather by the White House ahead of his speech to contest the certification by the U.S. Congress of the outcomes of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.
Jim Bourg | Reuters
Giuliani left a voicemail for one senator, saying, “We want you, our Republican friends, to try to only slow it down so we are able to get these legislatures to get more information to you,” in keeping with the indictment.
“And I do know they’re reconvening at eight tonight however the only strategy we are able to follow is to object to quite a few states and lift issues in order that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the top of tomorrow,” Giuliani said on the message, the indictment alleges.
The indictment goes on to say that “At 7:01 p.m., while Co-Conspirator 1 was calling United States Senators on behalf of [Trump], the White House Counsel called the Defendant to ask him to withdraw any objections and permit the certification.”
But Trump “refused,” the indictment says.
Trump nods to Biden victory: ‘It’s too late for us’
Trump, in dealings with others, appeared to admit that Biden had won the election and would soon replace him within the White House.
The indictment says that on Jan. 3, 2021, Trump “met for a briefing on an overseas national security issue with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Mark Milley] and other senior national security advisors.”
President Donald Trump speaks as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley looks on after senior military leaders briefed Trump within the Cabinet Room on the White House, Oct. 7, 2019.
Mark Wilson | Getty Images
“The Chairman briefed the Defendant on the problem — which had previously arisen in December — in addition to possible ways the Defendant could handle it,” the indictment says.
Milley and one other advisor advisable that Trump take no motion “because Inauguration Day was only seventeen days away and any plan of action could trigger something unhelpful,” the indictment says.
“The Defendant calmly agreed, stating, ‘Yeah, you are right, it’s too late for us. We’re going to offer that to the subsequent guy,” the indictment notes.
Trump inserts language about Pence in Jan. 6 speech
Trump had lobbied Pence to reject certifications of Biden electoral slates from multiple states that he lost.
Trump did so again on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, before Pence was because of preside over the joint session of Congress that will confirm Biden’s victory within the Electoral College.
President Donald Trump listens as Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a each day briefing of the White House Coronavirus Task Force within the Rose Garden on the White House, April 15, 2020.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
“At 11:15 a.m., the Defendant called the Vice President and again pressured him to fraudulently reject or return Biden’s legitimate electoral votes,” the indictment says.
“The Vice President again refused.”
Right after that phone call, Trump “decided to single out the Vice President in public remarks he would make throughout the hour, reinserting language that he had personally drafted earlier that morning — falsely claiming that the Vice President had authority to send electoral votes to the states — but that advisors had previously successfully advocated be removed,” the indictment states.
Soon after Trump made that speech in front of the White House, the mob of his supporters began attacking the Capitol, forcing Pence and members of Congress to flee to safety.