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Even after the Supreme Court pulled a new definition of presidential immunity out of thin air, Special Counsel Jack Smith had built and maintained a strong case against Donald Trump.
It is possible to pick out many examples of how the Smith investigation was able to build its case, but the one thing that Smith was able to do that other investigations didn’t quite get to was connect Trump to the alleged crimes.
For example, the fake elector scheme.
Smith gives Trump ownership of the plan by titling the report “Mr. Trump’s Fraudulent Elector Plan.”
It isn’t the fake elector plot or conspiracy. It is Trump’s plan.
Smith wrote in his report:
As December 14-the date the ECA required each state’s electors to vote and send their certificates of vote to Congress-approached, Mr. Trump and co-conspirators launched another plan. Under this plan, they would organize the people who would have served as Mr. Trump’s electors, had he won the popular vote, in seven states that Mr. Trump had lost-Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin-and cause them to sign and send to Washington false certifications claiming to be the legitimate electors.
Ultimately, as explained below, Mr. Trump and co-conspirators used the fraudulent certificates totry to obstruct the congressional certification proceeding. The fraudulent elector plan’s arc is reflected in a series of memoranda drafted in late November and early December by Co-Conspirator 5, who initially portrayed it as a contingency to preserve the possibility that Mr. Trump’s electors’ votes would be counted on January 6 if he prevailed in ongoing election litigation.
But as described below, the plan quickly transformed into a corrupt strategy to obstruct the certification proceeding and overturn the valid election results. Mr. Trump set the fraudulent elector plan into motion in early December, ensured that it was carried out by co-conspirators and Campaign agents in the targeted states, and monitored its progress.
The one area where the 1/6 Committee came up short was directly connecting Trump to these alleged crimes. Jack Smith found the evidence and made the connection.
Jack Smith had figured out a way to prosecute Trump and comply with the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling:
