'Make them riot': Politico pulls 6 key details from Jack Smith's massive Trump filing

Politico legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney shared on X Wednesday afternoon his immediate takeaways on the 165-page document Smith filed moments earlier in Washington D.C. federal court.

In the filing, Smith asserts his case against the former president within the context of the Supreme Court ruling that Trump enjoyed partial presidential immunity in the lead-up to the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Smith argues Trump can still be tried on election interference charges as he acted as a private citizen seeking personal gain and not a U.S. official seeking to protect the integrity of national elections.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to those charges and contended Wednesday, as he has in the past, that Smith is mounting a political witch hunt.

Here's what stood out to Cheney:

1) A Trump campaign employee sought to foment chaos at the TCF Center in Detroit where ballots were being processed, Smith contends.

"When a colleague at the TFC Center told [redacted] 'We think [a batch of votes heavily in Biden's favor is right, [redacted] responded, "find a reason it isnt," "give me options to file litigation," and "even if itbis [sic]," the filing reads.

"When the colleague suggested that there was about to be unrest reminiscent of the Brooks Brothers Riot, a violent effort to stop the vote count in Florida after the 2000 presidential election, [redacted] responded, 'Make them riot' and 'Do it!!!'"

2) Trump sidelined his campaign legal team on Nov. 13 and put Rudy Giuliani in charge because he was willing to lie about the election results, according to Smith.

"As the defendant placed alternating phone calls to [redacted] and [redacted] throughout November 13 [redacted] informed [redacted] , another private Campaign advisor, of the change," the filing states, "writing, "Close hold don't tell anyone Trump just fired [redacted] and put [redacted] in charge."

3) Vice President Mike Pence told Trump he saw no evidence of fraud over the course of many conversations detailed in his book and cited by prosecutors.

"In the post-election time period, Pence, the defendant's own running mate, who he had directed to assess fraud allegations told the defendant that he had seen no evidence of outcome-determinative fraud in the election," the filing states.

"The defendant disregarded [redacted] and Pence in the same way that he disregarded dozens of court decisions that unanimously rejected his and his allies' legal claims, and that he disregarded officials in the targeted states including those in his own party--who stated publicly that he had lost and that his specific fraud allegations were false."

4) Trump repeatedly promised to provide election fraud evidence to Govs. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) and Brian Kemp (R-GA) but never did, according to Smith.

"The defendant was on notice that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud in Arizona within a week of the election," the filing states.

"The defendant also raised claims of election fraud, and [redacted] asked the defendant to send him supporting evidence. Although the defendant said he would stating, 'we're packaging it up,' he never did."

5) Mark Meadows and a White House attorney exchanged messages on Dec. 3, 2020, confirming that dead voters statistics were false.

"During the hearing, Chief of Staff [redacted] and [redacted] exchanged text messages on their personal phones confirming that a Campaign attorney, [redacted] had verified that [redacted] claim of more than 10,000 dead voters was false and that the actual number was around 12 and could not be outcome-determinative."

6) A U.S. senator helped facilitate a Dec. 8 call between Trump and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.U.S. Senator

"U.S. Senator [redacted] told [redacted] that the defendant had heard that [redacted] was 'whipping,' or lobbying, other state attorneys general against filing amicus briefs in support of Texas," the filing states.

"[Redacted] asked [redacted] if he would speak with the defendant about it, and [redacted] agreed."