The feds are going to use Trump's tweets dating back to 2012 that baselessly claimed election fraud against him
Reuters/Leah Millis
- Trump is no longer on Twitter, but his old tweets keep coming back to haunt him.
- Jack Smith plans to use Trump's tweets, from as far back as 2012, in his 2020 election trial.
- The tweets show Trump's "plan of falsely blaming fraud for election results," a court filing alleges.
Former President Donald Trump may no longer be on Twitter (now known as X). But that doesn't mean his old tweets can't come back to haunt him.
The special counsel Jack Smith plans to use Trump's tweets, some of which date as far back as 2012, to convince a jury of Trump's peers that he engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the US and illegally overturn the 2020 election results, according to a new court filing from Smith's office.
The filing alleges that Trump's public statements "sowed mistrust in the results of the presidential election and laid the foundation for the defendant's criminal efforts."
Trump has a "historical record of making such claims," the filing alleges. It points to a November 2012 tweet from Trump which baselessly claimed that voting machines "had switched votes from then-candidate [Mitt] Romney to then-candidate [Barack] Obama."
When Trump launched his own campaign in the 2016 election, he repeatedly claimed that there would be widespread voter fraud.
Prosecutors highlighted an October 2016 tweet — approximately two weeks before Election Day — in which Trump said, "there is large scale fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!")."
The feds argue in the new filing that these tweets demonstrate Trump's "common plan of falsely blaming fraud for election results he does not like, as well as his motive, intent, and plan to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election results and illegitimately retain power."
A grand jury indicted Trump in July on four charges in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election: conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The former president's trial in the January 6 case is scheduled to kick off in March. His lawyers have repeatedly argued — in this case and in other criminal and civil proceedings — that Trump is absolutely immune from punishment related to his efforts leading up to the Capitol riot.
But US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the January 6 trial, rejected that argument last week in a scathing, 48-page opinion.
"Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong 'get-out-of-jail-free' pass," she wrote.
"Defendant's four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens," Chutkan added.