Former President Donald Trump was accused by special counsel Jack Smith’s team of acting as a private candidate for office rather than as the president of the United States when he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss. The filing detailed Trump’s scheme to spread lies about the election in order to stay in power. The filing revealed that as the Capitol was being attacked on Jan. 6, Trump was scrolling Twitter, indicating his awareness of the violence. The filing was in response to a Supreme Court ruling that Trump had immunity for some actions taken as president, but Smith’s team argued that Trump should stand trial for his private crimes like any other citizen.
The team asserted that Trump knew his claims about election fraud were false and that he relied on campaign employees to carry out his scheme to disrupt the election process in several states he lost. They also claimed Trump planned to declare victory before all the ballots were counted, setting the stage for his false claims of fraud. In response to the filing, Trump’s campaign spokesman dismissed it as false and described it as a partisan witch hunt by Democrats. The case is ongoing and updates are expected.
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