Donald Trump “resorted to committing crimes” after losing the 2020 election, federal prosecutors said in an unsealed court document Wednesday, which states that the Republican presidential candidate is not entitled to immunity from legal proceedings for his failed attempt to stay in power.
The document was presented by special counsel Jack Smith’s team following the Supreme Court’s opinion, which granted broad immunity to former presidents for official acts they perform in office, thus reducing the scope of the prosecution, which accuses Trump of conspiring to overturn the results of the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The purpose of the text is to convince the federal district judge of Washington, Tanya Chutkan, that the crimes mentioned in the indictment are private and unofficial acts and that, therefore, they can remain part of the accusation as the case progresses. .
Such acts include efforts to persuade former Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the electoral vote count on the afternoon of January 6, 2021.
“Although the defendant was the sitting president during the conspiracies of which he is accused, his plan was fundamentally private,” Smith’s team said. “Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he used various criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deception, the government function by which votes are collected and counted—a function in which the accused, as president, had no official role.”
“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to committing crimes to try to remain in office,” the document reads.
The 165-page filing is likely the last chance for prosecutors to detail their case against Trump before the Nov. 5 election, given that there will be no trial before Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Senior Trump administration officials, including former Vice President Mike Pence and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, appeared before the grand jury during the investigation.
Prosecutors filed the court filing Thursday, but U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had to sign off on the proposed redactions before they were made public.
[Con información de The Associated Press y Reuters]
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