New Jan 6 filing shows Trump knew he lost 2020 election, called fraud claims “crazy” – National & International News – WED 2Oct2024

Jan 6 filing shows Trump knew he lost election and that fraud claims were bogus.

Hurricane Helene death toll tops 180, thousands struggling to survive.

Jan 6 filing shows Trump knew he lost election and that fraud claims were bogus

Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith has submitted a new filing in the federal prosecution of Donald Trump related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. According to the 165-page filing, Trump was seemingly well aware of that he had, in fact, lost the election fair and square. Various advisors told him so on many occasions. Trump himself seemed to acknowledge the fact, telling one of his family members “it doesn’t matter if you want or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell,” according to the filing.  

Trump repeatedly, and still to this day, has used allegations of election rigging and voter fraud to whip his followers into a frenzy. However, the filing reveals evidence that Trump knew that there was no truth to any of these allegations at the time. Not only had advisors told him as much, Trump even privately referred to some of the claims by his own campaign lawyer Sidney Powell as “crazy,” according to the filing. 

Regardless, “the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost,” the filing reads.

In an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman just last month, Trump acknowledged publicly for the first time that he did, in fact, lose the 2020 election “by a whisker”, as he put it. Possibly realizing that this admission increased his legal jeopardy, Trump later tried to walk it back, calling it “sarcastic”.

“Fight like hell”

On January 6, 2021, Trump echoed his private statements to his family by telling his supporters to “fight like hell”. “Otherwise”, Trump said, “you won’t have a country anymore”. Nowhere in his speech did Trump acknowledge the fact that he knew that he had lost, nor the fact that he knew the election fraud allegations were “crazy”.

As the filing puts it, Trump “knew that he had only one last hope to prevent Biden’s certification as president: the large and angry crowd standing in front of him. So for more than an hour, the defendant delivered a speech designed to inflame his supporters and motivate them to march on the Capitol,” which they then did.

Later, Trump posted a tweet condemning his Vice President Mike Pence after Pence refused to block the certification of the official election results. Shortly thereafter, a White House aide informed Trump that Pence was in danger, believing or hoping Trump would do something about it. According to the filing, Trump’s response was “so what?”. 

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Hurricane Helene death toll tops 180 

Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene’s rampage through the southeast and Appalachia, 182 are now known to be dead across six states. Hundreds more are still missing. Meanwhile, many communities in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee remain without running water, electricity and access to food and telecommunications. 

Over 6,000 National guard troops are being deployed to the area to help in any way they can, including by delivering food, water, medicine, fuel and other lifesaving supplies. President Biden visited North Carolina today, flying over some of the most devastated areas. He promised survivors and residents of communities that have been all but wiped away that the government will be there until they are back on their feet. 

Not only are National Guard troops rushing to the area, but also thousands of civilian volunteers, who are coming to help clear brush, distribute supplies, clean up, and help in any other way they can. Power crews from several surrounding states or also on the ground or en route trying to get the power grid restored. Still the scope and scale of the devastation is difficult to conceptualize. Some once bustling towns are still underwater, while residents say that some smaller communities have been completely wiped off the map. It will be years, possibly decades, before some of these communities are restored, if ever. 

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