On the facts in the Trump indictment
The most damning information comes from his own party and supporters.
The first thing to note about the latest Trump indictment is that few of its facts are contested. While reading, I recognized facts I had seen from previously published documents, sworn testimony, hearings, or NPR’s own reporting. I had spoken to some of the witnesses myself.
Even if I had not, I was among the millions of people following the news in 2020 and 2021 who learned of many of these events in real time. To give one example, we don’t need to wonder about what Trump said to Georgia’s Secretary of State in an effort to subvert democracy, because a recording of their phone call was made public at the time.
It is of course for the courts to decide if these facts show that Trump is or is not guilty of conspiracies against the American people; and it is for the people to decide how much they care. But the facts themselves would be hard to dispute. Few are new to anyone.
The second thing to note is that the sources of these facts tend to be Republicans. In many cases they were not just any Republicans, but were people Trump himself had brought into government.
Below is some text from the indictment. The bold highlights are mine:
The Defendant insinuated that more than ten thousand dead voters had voted in Georgia. Just four days earlier, Georgia's Secretary of State had explained to the Defendant that this was false.
The Defendant asserted that there had been 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania. The Defendant's Acting Attorney General and Acting Deputy Attorney General had explained to him that this was false.
The Defendant said that there had been a suspicious vote dump in Detroit, Michigan. The Defendant's Attorney General had explained to the Defendant that this was false, and the Defendant's allies in the Michigan state legislature the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Majority Leader of the Senate had publicly announced that there was no evidence of substantial fraud in the state…
The Defendant said that more than 30,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona. The Defendant's own Campaign Manager had explained to him that such claims were false, and the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, who had supported the Defendant in the election, had issued a public statement that there was no evidence of substantial fraud in Arizona.
The Defendant asserted that voting machines in various contested states had switched votes from the Defendant to Biden. The Defendant's Attorney General, Acting Attorney General, and Acting Deputy Attorney General all had explained to him that this was false, and numerous recounts and audits had confirmed the accuracy of voting machines.
Every person named here is a Republican, a Trump supporter, literally someone he hired to work with him, or all three. Trump, of course, disregarded them all as he whipped up supporters on the way to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Based on this evidence, special counsel Jack Smith asserts that as “the Defendant spread lies,” he “knew that they were false.” We will learn if Smith is able to make that allegation stick in court.
In any case the indictment shows something about Trump’s party. A large number of prominent Republicans knew that Trump’s claims of a stolen election were false. Some have spoken out, softly or loudly. Others change the subject. Presidential candidate Tim Scott, who was present in the Capitol as a senator during the January 6 attack, issued a statement after the indictment that talked of Hunter Biden.
Now the party moves toward the presidential nominating season, and according to surveys, a majority of Republican voters is prepared to nominate Trump again. Based on years of voter interviews, it’s safe to say that many of those voters sincerely believe that he is innocent, or that he is only guilty of politics, or that he is guilty but the Democrats also are, or that he is a victim of the deep state, or even that Trump is a terrible man who somehow will look after them—who is only terrible to other people. (Kristin Kobes du Mez writes that some evangelical conservatives supported Trump because they felt he was a bad man, and that they needed such a man as their defender in a hostile world.)
But in working to downplay or dismiss this indictment, Republican leaders will have to address a reality contained within it. The people around Trump who informed him that he was wrong were also Republicans—most of them in good standing with the party, and with Trump, until they said what they knew.