Jack Smith filing details Jan. 6 case against Trump

Special counsel Jack Smith and Donald Trump

Mike Pence refused to help the former president overturn the election results, the detailed court filing said

(Image credit: Mandel Ngan / Jeff Kowalsky / AFP via Getty Images)

published 3 October 2024

What happened

Donald Trump "resorted to crimes to try to stay in office" after losing the 2020 presidential race, special counsel Jack Smith argued in a court filing unsealed Wednesday. And Trump's "increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results" were "fundamentally private" in nature, not "official" acts deemed immune from prosecution under a recent Supreme Court ruling. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan released the redacted 165-page brief over Trump's objections.

Smith's "explosive" filing "offers a searing portrayal of Trump" as he tried to cling to power, The Washington Post said, even as Mike Pence, campaign officials and lawyers, and Republican state officials told him "there was no proof the election was stolen." None of the "new details were game-changing revelations," said The New York Times, "but they add further texture to the available history" of Trump's actions leading up to Jan. 6, 2021.

Three White House aides and an FBI forensic computer examiner revealed that Trump was alone in his Oval Office dining room, watching his followers storm the Capitol on Fox News and Twitter, when he personally posted his tweet accusing Pence of lacking the "courage" to block certification of President Joe Biden's electoral victory, the filing said. "One minute later, the Secret Service was forced to evacuate Pence to a secure location in the Capitol." When an aide then rushed in to tell Trump that his vice president was in danger, the brief recounted, Trump "looked at him and said only, 'So what?'"

Trump's campaign called the filing's release "unconstitutional," and Trump told NewsNation "they should have never allowed the information" to "come before the public."

Trump's team asked Chutkan to extend the deadline for their response to Nov. 21. Chutkan will consider both arguments, the Times said, and determine which parts of Smith's indictment "survive the Supreme Court's immunity ruling." The case is "likely to make its way back to the Supreme Court," the Post said. And "if Trump wins the election, he is widely expected to order the Justice Department to end the case."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.