By Jeff Charles
Special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday made a court filing against former President Donald Trump outlining his intention to prove a series of allegations against him. The filing presents a narrative of Trump supposedly inciting violence, among other accusations, and delves into Trump’s conduct after the 2020 presidential election. Smith details some of the evidence he will be introducing to prosecute the former president, and if this filing is any indication, the case for proving he encouraged violence appears to be pretty thin.
The document delves into various aspects of the former president’s conduct and highlights specific actions that Smith’s team seems to believe were inciting. Of particular interest to Smith’s team is Trump’s supposed pattern of using public statements and social media to prompt violent action.
The defendant has an established pattern of using public statements and social media posts to subject his perceived adversaries to threats and harassment… including the defendant’s public endorsement and encouragement of violence.
The idea is that Trump’s behavior isn’t just heated rhetoric, Smith’s team seems to believe they can prove that it translated into real-world threats and harassment.
As an example, the document attempts to tie Trump to alleged extremist groups, using the presidential debate in September 2020. When the former president was asked to denounce the Proud Boys, a group that has been accused of engaging in political violence, Trump’s response was to tell them to “stand back and stand by.” The state is attempting to portray this statement as an expression of support and an order to hold off on violence until a later time.
“Members of the group embraced the defendant’s words as an endorsement and printed merchandise with them as a rallying cry,” the filing claims.
The prosecution also accuses Trump of continuing to target individuals even after knowing his claims that the 2020 election was stolen could lead to violent outcomes. It cites the case of two Georgia election workers who were subjected to “vile racist and violent threats and harassment,” due to Trump’s accusations of election fraud.
Even further, Smiths’ team is set to present evidence showing that Trump’s support for those arrested for J6 shows that he supported the violence at the Capitol building. The document cites his public comments about the J6ers after the riot as evidence that he supported their actions.
“Evidence of the defendant’s post-conspiracy embrace of particularly violent and notorious rioters is admissible to establish the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6,” according to the filing.
Smith’s filing attempts to portray Trump as a sort of mastermind who orchestrated the J6 riot while also using mafioso tactics to prevent people from contradicting his claims about the election.
The Government will introduce such evidence to further establish the defendant and his co-conspirators’ plan of silencing and intent to silence those who spoke out against the defendant’s false election fraud claims”; the defendant’s knowledge that his public attacks on officials—like those on his Vice President as described in the indictment—could foreseeably lead to threats, harassment, and violence; and the defendant’s repeated choice to attack individuals with full knowledge of this effect.
In addition to the allegations that Trump incited violence, Smith’s filing highlights a series of other allegations, particularly related to the former president’s pattern of claiming election fraud. “As set forth in the indictment the defendant’s criminal conspiracies relied on his knowingly false claims of election fraud,” the document states, noting that Trump’s allegations about voter fraud date back to as early as 2012 and later became a constant theme in the 2016 campaign.
This is mentioned to make it appear as if Trump had engineered a long-term plan to claim voter fraud if an election did not go his way, rather than a spontaneous reaction to the outcome of the 2020 race.
In the end, Smith’s filing claims he will prove that Trump was a sort of evil genius who masterminded an entire plot to dispute the outcome if he lost an election, even going so far as to concoct a violent attack against the government.
Let’s be blunt, shall we? If this is the best that Smith’s team has, this case might not go well for them. This “evidence” is rather shaky, at best and I haven’t seen anything that would suggest that Trump inspired a bunch of people to riot at the U.S. Capitol. Sure, Trump uses strong language, but he is not the first or last politician to do so.
Moreover, the notion that a politician should be responsible for people taking it upon themselves to engage in violence could lead to a terribly dangerous place. Should the state prosecute Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) because the man who tried to assassinate Republican politicians was allegedly inspired by his rhetoric?
Of course not.
Basically, this indictment boils down to arguing that because Trump disputed the election results and said some mean things about people, the state should prosecute him. If the court handles this fairly, it seems doubtful to me that the prosecution will be able to make these particular allegations stick.
smith has one small problem. The riot was incited by the FBI and their assets embedded within Trump supporters.
I remember when the story was that the January 6 riot was the doing of ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter.
They would be the FBI assets
Which group do conspiracy theorists currently assign Ray Epps to?
You don’t see it as just a bit odd that while those who committed no violence and some who weren’t even at the Capital on January 6th are in jail for long sentences, Epps, the only person on video inciting the incursion into the Capital and also shown removing barricades and promoting the incursion, is NOT in jail?
Why isn’t the same attention applied to the Hamas-supporting violent mobs?
Epps is a Fed asset an agitator, how many feds were going to kidnap a Dem governor?
A mindless social media lynch mob has destroyed Ray Epp’s life.
So you approve of him calling for protesters to enter the Capital?
Calling for protesters to enter the Capitol is why Epps is awaiting sentencing for disorderly or disruptive conduct on restricted grounds.
Don’t you even think?
Epps is ”awaiting” sentencing” at HOME.
All these other Jan 6th arrestees are awaiting trial in horrible conditions in a crap-filled prison, in isolation, denied their right to a lawyer, even their right to their medications!
Database of all those arrested on January 6 charges, as of 12/01/23.
1201 people have been charged. As of March, only 20 were being held who haven’t actually been sentenced to prison time. 17 of those were arrested for assaulting police officers.
So, why does the ONE PERSON shown on video exhorting protesters to storm the Capital not already in jail? People that weren’t even there are in jail, people who just “said stuff” are in jail, people who “paraded” are in jail. Why isn’t, by Democrat definition, the most seditious and dangerous person there not rotting in a cold, damp jail cell?
Because he’s a G-man.
Maybe you’ll be satisfied when some right-wing nut case assaults or kills him. He was one of your own.
I could not care less what happens to him. He should have thought about all that before he through his lot in with fascist left wing insurrectionists undermining the Constitution.
Just a small side point:
Derek Chauvin was stabbed 22 times in the chest while in prison in Arizona.
The perp was an FBI asset, too.
Just a coincidence. Move along. Nothing to see here.
I remember Antifa we saw that guy breaking a window then MSM paying him for that, and Feds.
BLM are the traveling criminal democrat rioters burning down and looting towns where ever they gather,like Kenosha.
You remember Kenosha where your Wisconsin gun law experts on TV were 100 % wrong, yes a 17 year old can open carry a rifle and defend himself from a violent mob containing an armed felon, child molester , and a woman beater.
If that’s true, why would Johnson have everyone’s faces blurred in the footage? Certainly it would yield plenty of direct photographic evidence of the FBI inciting the crowd.
Just an idea, how many capitol police committed suicide after the false flag? You want the FBI doxxed for following orders?
Try to use part of your addled brain.
“You want the FBI doxxed for following orders?”
I do if they broke the law. Don’t you? Why are you making the DOJ’s case for it?
They can be used as minnows after the election. Ever go fishin’ Mikey?
Copies of the video without blurred faces can yield the identities of the FBI assets. As soon as the FBI stops protecting their subversion, they can be identified.
Unblurred videos, which Johnson has, would allow him to exert pressure on the DOJ to indict those found to be FBI agents.
The DoJ has the videos as well. The FBI has the videos.
Can’t Johnson exert pressure on the DOJ to get something done about it?
What part of “weaponized DOJ and FBI working solely for the DNC” can you not understand?
Certainly the House GOP can exert enough pressure to get something done. At the very least, it can take the unblurred images and post photographs of those FBI agents who have been identified. That would light a fire under the DOJ and it would bring all the true patriots around to your side.
Anyway, you guys have already identified the FBI agents present on January 6, haven’t you? You’ve been talking about how many there were for almost three years now.
How? If they had a majority in the Senate, they could cut funding. It has been confirmed that there were over 200 FBI assets (not agents, dumbass) present at the Capital January 6th but, other than Epps, they have not been identified.
Would you fire or indict someone doing what they were told to do by their bosses..huh stupid?
Hey how long is the Las Vegas shooter going to be in the news?
He was a professor, imagine that.
“Would you fire or indict someone doing what they were told to do by their bosses..huh stupid?”
All you’ve been doing for nearly three years is bitching about the FBI breaking the law. Now you don’t want to deal with it?
I would if they were breaking the law.
Then we need to fire and prosecute school librarians for putting out the queer porn books, contributing to the delinquency of a minor. You know cause she was told to.
Is inciting violence breaking the law? How about entrapment?
This whole Witch Hunt is going to Backfire on those who are responsible for it all just like the Salam Witch Trials backfired on the infamous Witch Hunter at the time Mathew Hopkins
I guess he should have denied they exist, like Democrats do with the truly and demonstrably violent group, ANTIFA. He should have just said they were an “idea”. It doesn’t matter that they’ve never actually committed any violence.
The Republican response to Trump’s second impeachment pretty much established how the Democrats either don’t believe harsh rhetoric incites violence or, if they do, they condone it. Either way, this tack merely shows how weak and pathetic their case is.
This makes the flawed assumption that those are legitimate convictions for violent behavior. They aren’t and every one needs to be reviewed and reevaluated by a non-fascist judge.
The argument that because Trump denied the outcome of the election justifies an indictment for some kind of crime doesn’t survive the comparison to the claims Gore, Hillary, Abrams, Pelosi and just about every other Democrat made after 2016 and up until 2020.
Smith knows his audience. Only Democrats are stupid enough to consider this legitimate.
They live in a world where garage door pulls are really nooses, and Chicago is MAGA country all we can do is smirk as they beat their drum in our faces.
How did the LEFT treat threatening photos of President Trump?
NEWSWEEK:
A photo showed Trump in what appeared to be crosshairs.
Journalist Tom Roussey of ABC affiliate station WJLA-TV in Washington D.C., apologized and deleted the photo.
Hi everybody, I just want to apologize. I’m really sorry. It’s my fault but I hope you can forgive. pic.twitter.com/U4GfB6guc0
— Tom Roussey (@tomrousseyABC7) November 29, 2018
Not fired.
Not punished at all!
Forgiveness handed out.
No grudge held.
Worse than all of Trump’s statements that day put together…..and in context.
12/07/23 – After skipping GOP debate, Donald Trump shows up at N.Y. fraud trial
Fraudulent NY trial. There. Fixed it.
12/07/23 – A deluge of violent messages: How a surge in threats to public officials could disrupt American democracy –
(Includes recordings of messages left for public officials. Listen at your own discretion.)
Yeah, thanks, Democrats.
12/07/23 – Ex-police chief caught with hatchet in Capitol on Jan. 6 sentenced to 11 years –
A former California police chief was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Thursday for his actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Why it matters: Alan Hostetter’s punishment is among the longest sentences received by those convicted of crimes committed in connection with the riot.
In preparation for Jan. 6, Hostetter, 59, brought hatchets, knives, stun batons, pepper spray and tactical gear to D.C. for himself and others, according to the Department of Justice.
What they’re saying: The Justice Department said Thursday that 1,230 people have been charged for their actions surrounding the Capitol riot.
The big picture: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said earlier this week that he would ensure that the faces of those who participated in Jan. 6 would be blurred out when he releases footage.
Others brought twist ties. They intended to take hostages.
The same guy: A Jan. 6 rioter praised Vivek Ramaswamy at his sentencing for suggesting riot was an ‘inside job’ –
They expected to be confronted by the always violent ANTIFA. Apparently, the government told ANTIFA to stand down, they’d have Epps stir the crowd up.
he didn’t bring his hatchet to the Capitol.
Was this guy RV traveling? Holy smokes if they looked at what I have when I go to camp and whats always there, a 9 mm semi-auto, a revolver, long axes, hatchets, stuff to make fire, (which could be called arson by these assholes)knives a machete Id never see the light of day again if they raided during deer season
From your mouth to God’s ear…
I hope you know if TSHTF dumb f’s like you are gonna die, it will hurt the whole time
Every one of these j6 prisoners will need to have their sentences commuted. j6 was an inside job, the violence instigated by FBI assets and capital police on instruction from higher ups.
Speaker Johnson should empanel a new select committee to reveal the truth to the American People, not the coverup crafted by the unconstitutional pelosi committee of 9 angry democrats.
Hatchet in his backpack. IN HIS BACKPACK. Did he wield it? Is having a hatchet illegal? I’ve heard of another guy legally carrying a concealed weapon. The authorities didn’t know he had carried it until he told them he had. That was the “armed insurrection”.
Why don’t you get a f**king life?
Why don’t you get a f**king brain???
My brain filters out the thousands of idiotic conspiracy theories YOU cling to every day, day in and day out. My brain is suspicious of propaganda, not jonesing for it like yours.