Even Donald Trump’s inner circle didn’t buy the former president's claims that the 2020 election was rigged, according to a mountain of evidence built by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith.
Emails and interviews gathered from multiple members of Trump’s team suggest that many knew the election fraud claims were a lie even as they pushed them, a Washington Post report on Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn President Joe Biden's election revealed.
The evidence also suggests those pushing adverts designed to sow doubt in the veracity of the election knew they were based on false information.
In one email obtained by Smith’s team, Trump adviser Jason Miller told an executive at the firm that produced Trump’s campaign ads: “The campaign’s own legal team and data experts cannot verify the b– s— being beamed down from the mothership,” the Post reported.
Smith’s investigation has a trove of evidence that shares similar sentiments.
“Prosecutors have sought and obtained some evidence that there was widespread disbelief even among members of the president’s inner circle about the claims of extensive voter fraud, according to subpoenas reviewed by The Post and interviews with people familiar with witness testimony,” the newspaper reported.
“When Trump wanted to release a press statement saying a single report of fraud was the “tip of the iceberg,” campaign advisers argued internally against using that language, because they believed there was no evidence for such a claim. The claim went into the news release anyway, according to people familiar with the matter.”
The fact that Trump and his campaign pushed forward despite so much doubt concerning the truth of what he was saying has become a core focus for Smith, the Post reported.
“Each track poses potential legal peril for those under scrutiny, but also raises tricky questions about where the line should be drawn between political activity, legal advocacy and criminal conspiracy,” the Post said.
Particular focus is on lawyers who worked to try to convince state and federal officials that Trump was the legitimate winner.
”Investigators have sought to determine to what degree these lawyers — particularly Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Kurt Olsen and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as then-Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark — were following specific instructions from Trump or others, and what those instructions were,” the Post said.
Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation is separate from the classified documents one that saw Trump arraigned on 37 federal counts earlier this month.
Speaking to the Post, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the information “out-of-context” and said the Department of Justice had “no case whatsoever.”
“Further, the DOJ has no place inserting itself into reviewing campaign communications and their meddling in such matters represents a grave danger to the First Amendment and should seriously concern all campaigns and Americans,” he said.
