Who’s who in Jack Smith’s massive Trump election interference filing
Posted on 10/04/2024
In attempting to convince a federal judge to allow prosecutors to move forward with their election interference case against Donald Trump, special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday unspooled events that featured a diverse cast of characters in the president’s orbit in late 2020 and early 2021. Some were longtime Trump allies, some were outside lawyers hired to take on the legal issues, and some were state officials from around the country who the special counsel alleged were on the receiving end of Trump’s wrath as his efforts to subvert the election failed.
Stephen K. Bannon
Return to menu
The podcaster and longtime adviser to Trump joined the Trump campaign a month before the 2020 election. Prosecutors allege that shortly before Election Day, Bannon told a private gathering that “what Trump’s going to do is just declare victory.” Trump did that not long after the polls were closed.
After the election was called for Joe Biden, Bannon told another Trump supporter that he had recommended Trump fire his current lawyers and hire former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, because “if Giuliani was not in charge, this thing is over,” the prosecution brief alleges. Trump announced his changes the next day.
Prosecutors say that Trump and Bannon began having daily contact starting in mid-December 2020, and that Bannon’s podcast on Dec. 14 “focused on spreading lies about [Trump’s] fraudulent electors,” the scheme to submit a second set of electors from contested states such as Pennsylvania and Arizona to support Trump. The prosecutors argue that Bannon was using the podcast to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to stop the certification of Biden’s election.
Advertisement
Trump spoke to Bannon on Jan. 5, 2021, the prosecution filing alleges, followed by a podcast in which Bannon said “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” Later that night, Trump and Bannon spoke again, followed soon after by a public statement from Trump asserting that “the Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.” Trump knew that was false because Pence had repeatedly told him he did not have the authority to intervene, prosecutors allege.
Bannon’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Rudy Giuliani
Return to menu
Much of Giuliani’s work on behalf of Trump happened publicly in front of cameras or in legislative hearings. But it was in closed-door meetings with Republicans in Arizona and elsewhere that he expected he would have success — and was surprised when conservative officials stood behind their election results, according to Smith’s brief.
Advertisement
In late November 2020, Trump and Giuliani called Rusty Bowers, then the speaker of the Arizona House, asking him to replace Arizona’s legitimate electors for Biden with illegitimate Trump electors, the brief states. Bowers was skeptical, and Giuliani told him, “We’re all kind of Republicans and we need to be working together,” the brief alleges. Bowers asked Giuliani for evidence of election fraud but never got any, it says.
Giuliani next tried his luck in Georgia, where he wielded the video of election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman inside State Farm Arena in Atlanta and argued they were committing fraud, according to the brief. Georgia officials told him there was no fraud, but Giuliani continued to criticize the two women publicly. They later sued him and were awarded a $148 million judgment.
Giuliani also spread false claims to legislators in Michigan and Pennsylvania, the brief says, and then became involved in the scheme to organize and submit slates of Trump electors in six states. On Dec. 10, he instructed another lawyer to send directions to the phony electors on “how best to mimic the manner” of valid electors, “along with fraudulent certificates of vote,” the government alleges.
Advertisement
On Jan. 6, Giuliani called senators after the Capitol riot and continued to urge them to delay the certification and to “object to every state,” according to a voicemail left for one senator described in the brief. He falsely claimed Pence’s refusal to intervene was surprising and that Trump needed more time for state legislatures to reverse their votes, the brief states.
Giuliani has been disbarred in New York and Washington for his actions in the case, and he has been indicted in Georgia and Arizona.
Responding to the filing, Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said: “This is blatant election interference by Jack Smith, a person with a long track record of weaponizing the law for political gain.”
Kenneth Chesebro
Return to menu
Kenneth Chesebro is an attorney who helped devise the plan to reverse the 2020 results by having Republicans cast electoral votes for Trump in states he lost.
A day before electors in every state were to meet, Chesebro sent a memo to Giuliani arguing Pence could use fraudulent electoral votes to create the illusion that the election’s outcome was in doubt and push for negotiations that would result in Biden’s defeat, prosecutors allege.
On Dec. 16, 2020 — two days after the electors gathered — Chesebro and others met with Trump in the Oval Office, where Trump complained about a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who had ruled against him, prosecutors allege. As the group left the meeting, Trump spoke privately with Chesebro, according to prosecutors.
Advertisement
Three days later, Trump urged his supporters to come to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 for a “wild” protest. Chesebro sent word of Trump’s tweet to James Troupis, a Trump attorney who participated in the Oval Office meeting with Chesebro. “Wow,” Chesebro wrote to Troupis, according to prosecutors’ filing. “Based on 3 days ago, I think we have unique understanding of this.”
Later, Chesebro hand-delivered copies of the paperwork for the would-be electors from Michigan and Wisconsin to congressional aides, prosecutors allege. On the morning of Jan. 6, Chesebro consulted with Troupis as Troupis tried to get the paperwork into the hands of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) so he could pass it on to Pence, according to Wednesday’s filing and other documents. The idea fizzled when an aide to Pence said he wouldn’t accept the paperwork.
Chesebro, who has not been charged in the federal case, pleaded guilty in 2023 to conspiring to file false documents in a Georgia case over the attempt to overturn the election. He faces separate charges of conspiring to commit forgery in Wisconsin over his election activities in that state. He has not had to enter a plea in that case.
Advertisement
Chesebro did not respond to a request for comment.
Doug Ducey
Return to menu
As the Arizona governor in 2020, Doug Ducey (R) played a key role in certifying the election results in a state that Trump had lost by a mere 10,457 votes. Unlike other Republicans around the nation, Ducey has publicly downplayed his private interactions with the former president and his allies after the 2020 election.
In the days after the election, after Fox News projected Trump’s loss, the president called Ducey to ask what was happening with vote counting in the swing state, according to the filing. Ducey walked Trump through the number of votes that still needed to be counted and described to the president that he was in “the ninth inning, two outs” and that Trump “was several runs down,” prosecutors allege in the filing. Trump raised claims of “election fraud” and the governor asked him to send evidence, the filing says.
“We’re packaging it up,” Trump replied, according to the filing. The evidence did not arrive, and Trump and his allies continued to exert pressure on the governor, the filing says.
On Nov. 30, 2020, the same day the governor signed the state’s certificate of ascertainment formally declaring Biden’s electors as the rightful electors for the state, he got a call from Trump and Pence, the filing alleges. The governor told them he had certified the election. Trump again brought up his claims of fraud; Ducey again asked to see the evidence, according to the filing.
The evidence never arrived, prosecutors allege, and Trump later attacked the governor publicly. A spokesperson for Ducey did not immediately comment on the filing.
Mike Roman
Return to menu
Mike Roman served as the director of Election Day operations for Trump’s 2020 campaign and played a role in having Republicans meet as presidential electors in states Trump lost. He and others on Trump’s team sought to spread confusion as votes were being counted in Detroit, according to Wednesday’s filing.
When a colleague told him a batch of votes heavily favoring Biden were valid, Roman texted “find a reason it isnt” and asked for litigation options, according to the filing. When the colleague said the scene at the counting center could develop into something akin to the “Brooks Brothers riot” from the 2000 election in Florida, Roman responded, “Make them riot,” prosecutors allege.
In December 2020, as Trump’s campaign was urging Republicans to meet as electors in states he lost, Roman bemoaned that Pennsylvania Republicans had grown “squishy,” the filing alleges.
“Whoever selected this slate should be shot,” he wrote to a colleague, according to the filing. The Pennsylvania Republicans added caveats to their paperwork that said they should be considered electors only if a court made such a finding. That prospect raised concerns from Roman, who told a colleague, “if it gets out we changed the language for PA it could snowball,” according to the court filing.
Roman is not charged or listed as a co-conspirator in the federal case but he is separately being prosecuted in three states for his election activities.
He faces conspiracy and other charges in Arizona; racketeering and other charges in Georgia; and conspiracy to commit forgery in Wisconsin. He has pleaded not guilty in Arizona and Georgia and has not had to enter a plea yet in Wisconsin. An attorney for him was not immediately available.
Sidney Powell
Return to menu
A onetime federal prosecutor turned private attorney, Sidney Powell filed lawsuits challenging the outcomes in multiple states after the 2020 election. On Nov. 14, 2020, as Trump and co-conspirators espoused false claims about the security and accuracy of voting machines in various states, Trump announced that she would assist his campaign’s legal efforts, according to the filing.
Days later, in response to a document critical of vote-counting machines that was shared with her on the president’s behalf, she responded that the information “MUST GO IN ALL SUITS IN GA AND PA IMMEDIATELY WITH A FRAUD CLAIM THAT REQUIRES THE ENTIRE ELECTION TO BE SET ASIDE in those states and machines impounded for non-partisan professional inspection,” according to the filing.
Powell took part in a Nov. 19 news conference on behalf of Trump and his campaign at the Republican National Committee headquarters, where she “made false and factually impossible claims” about the nation’s election infrastructure, the filing alleges. After Trump saw the news conference, he said that Powell had appeared “unhinged,” the filing says.
On Nov. 20, Trump had a call with Powell on speakerphone while Dan Scavino and Hope Hicks listened, according to the filing. When Trump mentioned a segment from Fox News that described how Powell did not produce evidence of her claims to them, Trump put the call on mute, deriding her claims as “crazy,” the filing alleges.
When Trump was told by an attorney that the claims were unreliable and should not be included in litigation, Trump agreed, saying he had seen nothing to substantiate Powell’s allegations, according to the filing. Though Trump distanced himself from her, he continued to publicly support her claims, the filing alleges.
Boris Epshteyn
Return to menu
Boris Epshteyn, a Republican strategist, lawyer and top Trump adviser, has been a steady fixture at the former president’s side, dating back to when he began acting as a surrogate for Trump’s 2016 campaign. In April, Epshteyn was among more than a dozen Trump allies indicted in Arizona on charges tied to alleged efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in that state. The charges stem from Epshteyn’s alleged role overseeing a plan to use pro-Trump electors to overturn Biden’s victory in key battleground states. Epshteyn has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges. Smith’s redacted brief sheds some additional light on the role Epshteyn allegedly played.
Identified as CC6, Epshteyn is mentioned more than 30 times in the document — allegedly joining Giuliani, then Trump’s personal attorney, in advising Trump on the morning of Nov. 4, 2020, to “just declare victory,” according to the brief, even as the outcome of the election remained uncertain. The brief pointedly describes Epshteyn as one of the “private political operatives” advising Trump — not one of his private attorneys or other legal advisers.
Skip to end of carousel
Sign up for The Trump Trials newsletter
Subscribe to The Trump Trials newsletter to get the latest updates on Donald Trump’s four criminal cases in your inbox.
End of carousel
Epshteyn did not respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors put Epshteyn at the center of executing what the brief calls the Trump elector “conspiracy,” coordinating with campaign staff and lawyers including Giuliani, Eastman and Chesebro.” It cites a January 2021 text thread between Epshteyn and Chesebro as evidence of how “conspirators attempted to keep the full nature of the fraudulent elector plan secret.”
In the thread, Epshteyn tells Chesebro, “Careful with your texts on text groups” and tells the lawyer to only communicate with him and Eastman about the elector plan. “I’m probably a bit paranoid,” Epshteyn wrote, according to the brief. “A valuable trait,” Chesebro responded.
More on the Trump Jan. 6 case
The latest: A new indictment has been filed against Donald Trump in the case involving an alleged conspiracy to obstruct the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Supreme Court ruled last month that Trump is immune from prosecution for his “official acts” as president. Here are key takeaways from the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
The trial: What is presidential immunity? The Supreme Court’s immunity decision probably means that Trump’s federal trial can proceed in D.C. but only after additional delay. The March 4 trial date was taken off the calendar, and jury selection was postponed indefinitely.
The charges: Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Here’s a breakdown of the charges against him and what they mean, and things that stand out from the Trump indictment.
The case: The special counsel’s office has been investigating whether Trump or those close to him violated the law by interfering with the lawful transfer of power after the 2020 election or with Congress’s confirmation of the election results on Jan. 6, 2021. It is one of several ongoing investigations involving Trump.
Stephen K. Bannon
Return to menu
The podcaster and longtime adviser to Trump joined the Trump campaign a month before the 2020 election. Prosecutors allege that shortly before Election Day, Bannon told a private gathering that “what Trump’s going to do is just declare victory.” Trump did that not long after the polls were closed.
After the election was called for Joe Biden, Bannon told another Trump supporter that he had recommended Trump fire his current lawyers and hire former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, because “if Giuliani was not in charge, this thing is over,” the prosecution brief alleges. Trump announced his changes the next day.
Prosecutors say that Trump and Bannon began having daily contact starting in mid-December 2020, and that Bannon’s podcast on Dec. 14 “focused on spreading lies about [Trump’s] fraudulent electors,” the scheme to submit a second set of electors from contested states such as Pennsylvania and Arizona to support Trump. The prosecutors argue that Bannon was using the podcast to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to stop the certification of Biden’s election.
Advertisement
Trump spoke to Bannon on Jan. 5, 2021, the prosecution filing alleges, followed by a podcast in which Bannon said “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” Later that night, Trump and Bannon spoke again, followed soon after by a public statement from Trump asserting that “the Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.” Trump knew that was false because Pence had repeatedly told him he did not have the authority to intervene, prosecutors allege.
Bannon’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Rudy Giuliani
Return to menu
Much of Giuliani’s work on behalf of Trump happened publicly in front of cameras or in legislative hearings. But it was in closed-door meetings with Republicans in Arizona and elsewhere that he expected he would have success — and was surprised when conservative officials stood behind their election results, according to Smith’s brief.
Advertisement
In late November 2020, Trump and Giuliani called Rusty Bowers, then the speaker of the Arizona House, asking him to replace Arizona’s legitimate electors for Biden with illegitimate Trump electors, the brief states. Bowers was skeptical, and Giuliani told him, “We’re all kind of Republicans and we need to be working together,” the brief alleges. Bowers asked Giuliani for evidence of election fraud but never got any, it says.
Giuliani next tried his luck in Georgia, where he wielded the video of election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman inside State Farm Arena in Atlanta and argued they were committing fraud, according to the brief. Georgia officials told him there was no fraud, but Giuliani continued to criticize the two women publicly. They later sued him and were awarded a $148 million judgment.
Giuliani also spread false claims to legislators in Michigan and Pennsylvania, the brief says, and then became involved in the scheme to organize and submit slates of Trump electors in six states. On Dec. 10, he instructed another lawyer to send directions to the phony electors on “how best to mimic the manner” of valid electors, “along with fraudulent certificates of vote,” the government alleges.
Advertisement
On Jan. 6, Giuliani called senators after the Capitol riot and continued to urge them to delay the certification and to “object to every state,” according to a voicemail left for one senator described in the brief. He falsely claimed Pence’s refusal to intervene was surprising and that Trump needed more time for state legislatures to reverse their votes, the brief states.
Giuliani has been disbarred in New York and Washington for his actions in the case, and he has been indicted in Georgia and Arizona.
Responding to the filing, Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said: “This is blatant election interference by Jack Smith, a person with a long track record of weaponizing the law for political gain.”
Kenneth Chesebro
Return to menu
Kenneth Chesebro is an attorney who helped devise the plan to reverse the 2020 results by having Republicans cast electoral votes for Trump in states he lost.
A day before electors in every state were to meet, Chesebro sent a memo to Giuliani arguing Pence could use fraudulent electoral votes to create the illusion that the election’s outcome was in doubt and push for negotiations that would result in Biden’s defeat, prosecutors allege.
On Dec. 16, 2020 — two days after the electors gathered — Chesebro and others met with Trump in the Oval Office, where Trump complained about a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who had ruled against him, prosecutors allege. As the group left the meeting, Trump spoke privately with Chesebro, according to prosecutors.
Advertisement
Three days later, Trump urged his supporters to come to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 for a “wild” protest. Chesebro sent word of Trump’s tweet to James Troupis, a Trump attorney who participated in the Oval Office meeting with Chesebro. “Wow,” Chesebro wrote to Troupis, according to prosecutors’ filing. “Based on 3 days ago, I think we have unique understanding of this.”
Later, Chesebro hand-delivered copies of the paperwork for the would-be electors from Michigan and Wisconsin to congressional aides, prosecutors allege. On the morning of Jan. 6, Chesebro consulted with Troupis as Troupis tried to get the paperwork into the hands of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) so he could pass it on to Pence, according to Wednesday’s filing and other documents. The idea fizzled when an aide to Pence said he wouldn’t accept the paperwork.
Chesebro, who has not been charged in the federal case, pleaded guilty in 2023 to conspiring to file false documents in a Georgia case over the attempt to overturn the election. He faces separate charges of conspiring to commit forgery in Wisconsin over his election activities in that state. He has not had to enter a plea in that case.
Advertisement
Chesebro did not respond to a request for comment.
Doug Ducey
Return to menu
As the Arizona governor in 2020, Doug Ducey (R) played a key role in certifying the election results in a state that Trump had lost by a mere 10,457 votes. Unlike other Republicans around the nation, Ducey has publicly downplayed his private interactions with the former president and his allies after the 2020 election.
In the days after the election, after Fox News projected Trump’s loss, the president called Ducey to ask what was happening with vote counting in the swing state, according to the filing. Ducey walked Trump through the number of votes that still needed to be counted and described to the president that he was in “the ninth inning, two outs” and that Trump “was several runs down,” prosecutors allege in the filing. Trump raised claims of “election fraud” and the governor asked him to send evidence, the filing says.
“We’re packaging it up,” Trump replied, according to the filing. The evidence did not arrive, and Trump and his allies continued to exert pressure on the governor, the filing says.
On Nov. 30, 2020, the same day the governor signed the state’s certificate of ascertainment formally declaring Biden’s electors as the rightful electors for the state, he got a call from Trump and Pence, the filing alleges. The governor told them he had certified the election. Trump again brought up his claims of fraud; Ducey again asked to see the evidence, according to the filing.
The evidence never arrived, prosecutors allege, and Trump later attacked the governor publicly. A spokesperson for Ducey did not immediately comment on the filing.
Mike Roman
Return to menu
Mike Roman served as the director of Election Day operations for Trump’s 2020 campaign and played a role in having Republicans meet as presidential electors in states Trump lost. He and others on Trump’s team sought to spread confusion as votes were being counted in Detroit, according to Wednesday’s filing.
When a colleague told him a batch of votes heavily favoring Biden were valid, Roman texted “find a reason it isnt” and asked for litigation options, according to the filing. When the colleague said the scene at the counting center could develop into something akin to the “Brooks Brothers riot” from the 2000 election in Florida, Roman responded, “Make them riot,” prosecutors allege.
In December 2020, as Trump’s campaign was urging Republicans to meet as electors in states he lost, Roman bemoaned that Pennsylvania Republicans had grown “squishy,” the filing alleges.
“Whoever selected this slate should be shot,” he wrote to a colleague, according to the filing. The Pennsylvania Republicans added caveats to their paperwork that said they should be considered electors only if a court made such a finding. That prospect raised concerns from Roman, who told a colleague, “if it gets out we changed the language for PA it could snowball,” according to the court filing.
Roman is not charged or listed as a co-conspirator in the federal case but he is separately being prosecuted in three states for his election activities.
He faces conspiracy and other charges in Arizona; racketeering and other charges in Georgia; and conspiracy to commit forgery in Wisconsin. He has pleaded not guilty in Arizona and Georgia and has not had to enter a plea yet in Wisconsin. An attorney for him was not immediately available.
Sidney Powell
Return to menu
A onetime federal prosecutor turned private attorney, Sidney Powell filed lawsuits challenging the outcomes in multiple states after the 2020 election. On Nov. 14, 2020, as Trump and co-conspirators espoused false claims about the security and accuracy of voting machines in various states, Trump announced that she would assist his campaign’s legal efforts, according to the filing.
Days later, in response to a document critical of vote-counting machines that was shared with her on the president’s behalf, she responded that the information “MUST GO IN ALL SUITS IN GA AND PA IMMEDIATELY WITH A FRAUD CLAIM THAT REQUIRES THE ENTIRE ELECTION TO BE SET ASIDE in those states and machines impounded for non-partisan professional inspection,” according to the filing.
Powell took part in a Nov. 19 news conference on behalf of Trump and his campaign at the Republican National Committee headquarters, where she “made false and factually impossible claims” about the nation’s election infrastructure, the filing alleges. After Trump saw the news conference, he said that Powell had appeared “unhinged,” the filing says.
On Nov. 20, Trump had a call with Powell on speakerphone while Dan Scavino and Hope Hicks listened, according to the filing. When Trump mentioned a segment from Fox News that described how Powell did not produce evidence of her claims to them, Trump put the call on mute, deriding her claims as “crazy,” the filing alleges.
When Trump was told by an attorney that the claims were unreliable and should not be included in litigation, Trump agreed, saying he had seen nothing to substantiate Powell’s allegations, according to the filing. Though Trump distanced himself from her, he continued to publicly support her claims, the filing alleges.
Boris Epshteyn
Return to menu
Boris Epshteyn, a Republican strategist, lawyer and top Trump adviser, has been a steady fixture at the former president’s side, dating back to when he began acting as a surrogate for Trump’s 2016 campaign. In April, Epshteyn was among more than a dozen Trump allies indicted in Arizona on charges tied to alleged efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in that state. The charges stem from Epshteyn’s alleged role overseeing a plan to use pro-Trump electors to overturn Biden’s victory in key battleground states. Epshteyn has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges. Smith’s redacted brief sheds some additional light on the role Epshteyn allegedly played.
Identified as CC6, Epshteyn is mentioned more than 30 times in the document — allegedly joining Giuliani, then Trump’s personal attorney, in advising Trump on the morning of Nov. 4, 2020, to “just declare victory,” according to the brief, even as the outcome of the election remained uncertain. The brief pointedly describes Epshteyn as one of the “private political operatives” advising Trump — not one of his private attorneys or other legal advisers.
Skip to end of carousel
Sign up for The Trump Trials newsletter
Subscribe to The Trump Trials newsletter to get the latest updates on Donald Trump’s four criminal cases in your inbox.
End of carousel
Epshteyn did not respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors put Epshteyn at the center of executing what the brief calls the Trump elector “conspiracy,” coordinating with campaign staff and lawyers including Giuliani, Eastman and Chesebro.” It cites a January 2021 text thread between Epshteyn and Chesebro as evidence of how “conspirators attempted to keep the full nature of the fraudulent elector plan secret.”
In the thread, Epshteyn tells Chesebro, “Careful with your texts on text groups” and tells the lawyer to only communicate with him and Eastman about the elector plan. “I’m probably a bit paranoid,” Epshteyn wrote, according to the brief. “A valuable trait,” Chesebro responded.
More on the Trump Jan. 6 case
The latest: A new indictment has been filed against Donald Trump in the case involving an alleged conspiracy to obstruct the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Supreme Court ruled last month that Trump is immune from prosecution for his “official acts” as president. Here are key takeaways from the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
The trial: What is presidential immunity? The Supreme Court’s immunity decision probably means that Trump’s federal trial can proceed in D.C. but only after additional delay. The March 4 trial date was taken off the calendar, and jury selection was postponed indefinitely.
The charges: Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Here’s a breakdown of the charges against him and what they mean, and things that stand out from the Trump indictment.
The case: The special counsel’s office has been investigating whether Trump or those close to him violated the law by interfering with the lawful transfer of power after the 2020 election or with Congress’s confirmation of the election results on Jan. 6, 2021. It is one of several ongoing investigations involving Trump.
Comments( 0 )
0 0 5
