In almost every setting, Donald Trump is the prototype for brash and provocative, often bruising and tasteless in his description of political enemies. But in a courtroom, a place where he has regularly found himself in his post-presidency, he has a different persona. There, he is a citizen defendant, comporting himself quietly and respectfully, just as he was last week as he stood before federal judge Tanya Chutkin.
The ex-president, appearing to face charges leveled against him by the government in a 43-page indictment, stood quietly aside his attorneys as a U.S. magistrate read the charges. He faces four felonies for attempting to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election.
The indictment, filed by U.S. Attorney and special prosecutor Jack Smith, charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against voting rights. Each carries a term between five and twenty years in prison.
“Jack Smith has a very particular way of creating these indictments,” said University of Denver political science professor, Phil Chen. “I think that they’re done in a way that’s intended to be very persuasive.”
In the seven months since Smith was named as a special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, he has interviewed hundreds of witnesses, including many who once or still occupy places in Trump’s inner circle. In the indictment, he all but named four individuals who were essential in the plan to circumvent the certification process naming Joe Biden as the official winner of the 2020 election. Each is labeled a ‘co-conspirator’ and differentiated only by a numeral.
Co-Conspirator 1, the indictment charges, is an attorney “who was willing to spread false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” Former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani is thought to be this person.
Co-Conspirators 2, 3 and 4 are thought to be attorneys John Eastman, who drafted the plan to alter the rules for the Electoral Count Act and declare Trump the winner in the election; Sydney Powell, who once accused makers of the vote counting machines of manipulating votes; and Jeffrey Clark, an assistant U.S. Attorney General who was ready and willing to carry out the plan.
The indictment exposes the many moving parts of what amounts to a coup, an orchestrated plan to upend a legal election count and return a defeated president back into office. The planning for this undertaking, the government alleges, began just days after the 2020 election and was drafted by Eastman, once a visiting scholar of conservative thought and policy at the University of Colorado.
The Eastman plan was based on the false narrative that hundreds of thousands of votes counted for Biden were actually cast by “dead people, non-residents, non-citizens and migrants.” The indictment states that Eastman knew this to be untrue. It also states that the DOJ, DHS, DNI and White House attorneys also knew Eastman’s plan was baseless. Still, the President not only made no effort to stop its execution but encouraged it.
Despite evidence connecting Eastman to the coup blueprint, Guiliani’s regular appearances across the country, often before legislative bodies, perpetuating the myth of a Trump win, Powell’s outrageous claims of dark forces compromising voting machines, and Clark’s desire to please the President by providing an official DOJ imprimatur on the illegalities, none was charged.
Chen surmises that Smith’s omission in charging the four is by design. “It could be that he wants them to testify against Trump,” he said. “Others,” said the DU scholar, “think it was a decision to help the trial move faster.” Still, they each remain very much in the crosshairs of the special prosecutor and could still face serious felonies.
Pence, perhaps the second most prominent character in this dark chapter of American history is the man whose job it was to preside over the Electoral Count certification. Also, a man who loyalty to Trump often bordered sycophantic.
Pence had been badgered by Trump for weeks to act on the Eastman plan. But Pence, the indictment indicated, repeatedly questioned his authority to undertake his boss’s demand suspecting, if not entirely knowing, that it was illegal.
Amazingly, Eastman knew the plan he had offered up to Trump and wanted Pence to carry out was illegal but, in his mind, only slightly so. “He simply pretended that fake electors were real,” January 6th committee member and former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, said of Eastman.
To date, Cheney is one of the few Republicans to stand firm in the belief that Trump’s attempt to subvert the certification process was illegal. Rank-and-file GOP caucus members remain steadfast behind the ex-president. Chen suspects the silence coincides with the 2024 election where Trump may once again be the party’s nominee. Many feel speaking up against the ex-chief executive could damage their reelection.
What remains a hot topic as the first Republican presidential debate draws near is where will Pence be. The first presidential debate, set for August 23rd, could go on without Pence if he has not raised the requisite money to be included. But perhaps the bigger mystery is where will Pence be once Trump’s federal trial begins.
Pence has memorialized conversations held with Trump, including several meetings in which Trump criticized him as not being a team player, of being disloyal and of being “too honest.” Special prosecutor Smith would no doubt love to put Pence on the stand to share these recollections.
But Pence will be only one of many ex-Trump White House insiders who may also have recollections of conversations the prosecution would love to expose to the light. Mark Meadows, the ex-president’s chief of staff who is now suspected of cooperating with the special prosecutor may be the next biggest name.
Trump, now free on bond, is not scheduled to appear again before federal judge Tanya Chutkan until August 28th. However, that could change if Judge Chutkan determines that Trump has violated the terms of his bond last week when he promised not to say anything that might intimidate witnesses by improperly disclosing confidential evidence received from the government. His attorneys have appeared on his behalf to explain his recent outburst during weekend campaign stops.
Trump may also be in court sooner than August 28th to answer in Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis accusation that he interfered in that state’s election. No dates have been set for three other cases in New York that also have Trump’s name stamped on them.
