Special counsel Jack Smith will be presenting evidence against former President Donald Trump to show his alleged “encouragement of violence” that led to the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The court filing that was made public Tuesday details the evidence that Smith will be introducing in the federal trial of the former president in an attempt to connect him with protesters and expose his knowledge of “foreseeable consequences.”
The proposed evidence is “not to show the defendant’s criminal propensity, but to establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge, absence of mistake, and common plan,” prosecutors working for Smith alleged in the filing.
Smith detailed six different categories of evidence he plans to introduce that will establish that Trump sent protesters “to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification.”
“As set forth in the indictment, the defendant’s criminal conspiracies relied on his knowingly false claims of election fraud,” the nine-page filing noted. “At trial, the Government will introduce a number of public statements by the defendant in advance of the charged conspiracies, claiming that there would be fraud in the 2020 presidential election. These statements sowed mistrust in the results of the presidential election and laid the foundation for the defendant’s criminal efforts.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s roadmap for the historic election conspiracy criminal trial of Donald Trump will include evidence that spans more than TEN YEARS
Filed to @cbsnews =====> pic.twitter.com/fy8W2KKKfG
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) December 6, 2023
The filing claimed Trump “repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transition of presidential power if he lost the election,” and stated that proof would be provided to show “this refusal as intrinsic evidence of the defendant’s criminal conspiracies because it shows his plan to remain in power at any cost—even in the face of potential violence.”
One of the categories of evidence will purportedly cover Trump’s “Attacks on Individuals, Encouragement of Violence, and Knowledge of the Foreseeable Consequences.”
“At trial, the Government will introduce evidence of this conduct—including the defendant’s public endorsement and encouragement of violence—and further will elicit testimony from witnesses about the threats and harassment they received after the defendant targeted them in relation to the 2020 election,” Smith prosecutors detailed.
The filing noted that the “evidence of the defendant’s encouragement of violence and the consequences of his public attacks is admissible to allow the jury to consider the credibility and motives of witnesses who may be the continuing victims of the defendant’s attacks.”
Trump’s support for the Jan. 6 rioters is called out as a motive, according to one category of evidence.
“The Government plans to introduce evidence at trial showing that in the years since the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the defendant has openly and proudly supported individuals who criminally participated in obstructing the congressional certification that day, including by suggesting that he will pardon them if re-elected, even as he has conceded that he had the ability to influence their actions during the attack,” the filing read.
“The defendant nonetheless has financially supported and celebrated these offenders – many of whom assaulted law enforcement on January 6 – by promoting and playing their recording of the National Anthem at political rallies and calling them ‘hostages,’” it added.
Smith’s planned list of evidence has to be approved by Judge Tanya Chutkan before the jury trial begins.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung slammed the special counsel as “deranged” in a statement.
“Crooked Joe Biden, Deranged Jack Smith, and the rest of the Hacks and Thugs attempting to interfere in the 2024 election are getting so desperate to attack President Trump that they are perverting justice by trying to include claims that weren’t anywhere to be found in their dreamt up, fake indictment,” Cheung said, according to CNN.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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