Trump “resorted to crime” to overturn the 2020 result

Donald Trump “resorted to crime” to overturn his 2020 election defeat, prosecutors allege in a new court filing that argues the former president is not immune from prosecution.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor assigned to lead the election interference case against Trump, filed the file, which was unsealed Wednesday.

It challenges Trump's claim that he is protected by a landmark Supreme Court ruling in July that grants broad immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office.

In the filing, prosecutors allege Trump did not always act in an official capacity and instead engaged in a “private criminal effort” to overturn the 2020 results.

The 165-page document is an attempt by prosecutors to advance the criminal case against Trump after the Supreme Court ruling.

“Big victory for our Constitution and democracy,” Trump said at the time of the verdict, which was a big victory for the Republican presidential candidate.

This led prosecutors to narrow the scope of their charges. That's because the ruling did not provide immunity from unofficial actions, leading prosecutors to argue that some of his alleged attempts to overturn the election had to do with his campaign and his life as a private citizen, even though he was still in office office was.

The court should “determine that the defendant must stand trial for his private crimes like any other citizen,” Mr. Smith wrote in the new filing.

The case has been frequently delayed since the Justice Department filed charges more than a year ago against Trump, who has denied wrongdoing and sought to illegally block the certification of President Joe Biden's victory in January 2021.

Trump's lawyers fought to keep the latest filing secret, with campaign spokesman Steven Cheung calling it “full of falsehoods” and “unconstitutional.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump called it a “hit job” and said it “should not have been released right before the election.”

He accused prosecutors of “egregious” misconduct.

The filing provides new evidence and offers the clearest overview yet of how prosecutors would seek to present their case against Trump in court.

It claims that he had always planned to declare victory regardless of the result, and that he had laid the groundwork for this long before Election Day. He is also accused of knowingly spreading false claims about the vote that he himself considered “crazy.”

Mr. Smith also provides several new details about the Trump campaign's alleged role in sowing chaos in battleground states where large numbers of mail-in ballots were counted in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It also alleges that Trump and his allies, including attorney Rudy Giuliani, attempted to “take advantage of the violence and chaos at the Capitol” on January 6, 2021, to delay the certification of the election. They allegedly did this by calling senators and leaving voicemails urging them to object to state elections.

Trump said Wednesday that the case would end in his “complete victory.” A trial has not yet been set, but a possible date will almost certainly be after the November 5 election