Jack Smith has him
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s second indictment against Donald Trump addresses Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and his attempts to use those lies to overturn the results. Smith must prove that Trump knew he lost the election and carried through with the lies for other reasons. Most if not all politicians lie; it seems to be part of their makeup. We have never, however, had one who lies to the level of Donald Trump. It is, therefore, easy to believe that he knew and kept up the sham for his own personal reasons-to hold onto power and to generate money. As The Hill pointed out, Trump has already shown his knowledge. When all the evidence is taken together, it reveals the portrait of an evil man who was hellbent on maintaining his power. Based on evidence already obtained, Smith will succeed in showing Trump’s intent.
The House Select Committee already secured the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, former assistant to Mark Meadows. Cassidy shared conversations that Meadows and other staff heard about Trump conceding his loss. Further, Trump’s allies filed 61 cases alleging fraud in the election, which were summarily dismissed, and none of the targeted states made any moves to change their electoral college votes. Keep in mind as well that as president of the United States, Trump was privy to all things national, and he knew or should have known that the election was free of fraud. That knowledge was backed up by members of Trump’s senior administration and state officials that claims of fraud had been found to be false or at the very least unsubstantiated.
Trump was repeatedly advised that he lost the election fairly, but he pushed others to do things they had no business doing. He is quoted as telling DOJ officials: “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” This absolutely indicates that Trump knew he lost. The list of Trump’s wrongdoings continues, including trying to install Jeffrey Clarke as acting AG so that he could send letters to states to persuade them to hold up assigning their electoral votes. When that didn’t work, he called Brad Raffensperger and asked him to “find 11,780 votes,” which would have given Trump the victory in Georgia by one point. This all plays right into the indictment filed by DA Fani Willis, which further supports the notion that Trump knew all along his claims were false.
The main defense that Trump’s attorneys planned to use is that Trump truly thought fraud was involved in the 2020 election, thereby negating prosecutors’ claims. That is not true, and if Trump’s attorneys are determined to go down that road, they will look like fools. They will have to come up with some evidence to the contrary, and they will not be able to do that because it doesn’t exist. If Trump were a rational human being, he would go for a plea. Instead, he will attempt to continue this farce and end up being incarcerated for longer than it will take to live out his natural life.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years