The unsealing of the government’s case against Donald Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss was a gift to 2024 voters, reviving attention to perhaps the single biggest reason he shouldn’t be restored to office. New and sordid details, in particular from former Vice President Mike Pence, freshen what is mostly a familiar account of Trump’s post-election plotting to stay in power. It’s damning.
But the filing made public in Washington’s federal court is valuable, too, as a reminder of what Trump was doing in the months before the 2020 election. Chillingly, his activities back then — falsely alleging myriad ways Democrats would cheat, suggesting he’d challenge the result if he lost to Joe Biden — parallel what he is doing now as he campaigns against Kamala Harris.
Here’s how special counsel Jack Smith opens the narrative against Trump: “Although his multiple conspiracies began after election day in 2020, the defendant laid the groundwork for his crimes well before then.” Smith goes on: “He refused to say whether he would accept the election results, insisted that he could lose the election only because of fraud, falsely claimed that mail-in ballots were inherently fraudulent, and asserted that only votes counted by election day were valid.”
Voters, be forewarned. We’re watching a sequel.
Just last Tuesday, a reporter in battleground Wisconsin asked the election-denying candidate, “Do you trust the process this time around?” Trump: “I’ll let you know in about 33 days.” In his debate against Biden, Trump said, after the moderator’s third attempt at asking the question, that he’d accept the outcome if it were a “fair and legal and good election.”