Donald Trump’s co-conspirators may not have been named or charged in the indictment for 2020 election interference special prosecutor Jack Smith dropped Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean they’re in the clear for helping to foment and spread Trump’s “prolific lies” about the election. None of them should be feeling too secure.
Though they are not named, five of the six co-conspirators are obvious from the information included in the indictment: Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Chesebro. They’re all lawyers—they know they’re not off the hook. In a brief statement after the indictment was announced, Smith said he will “seek a speedy trial so that our evidence can be tested in court and judged by a jury of citizens.” Focusing on Trump as the only defendant, for now, will make that easier.
It also puts the six on notice that they are the next targets, and what information Smith and his investigators have compiled about their part in the conspiracy. That provides more incentive for them to flip on Trump. Here they are:
The indictment describes “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” Giuliani was at the center of the election subversion plot from the beginning, and he wasn’t shy about it.
He held a circus of a press conference (no, not that one) on Nov. 19, 2020, where he introduced the theory that, as Mark Sumner wrote, “Democrats engaged in a vast conspiracy to ‘inject’ hundreds of thousands of Biden votes by using voting machines built by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, with the help of wealthy Jew George Soros, that sent American votes overseas to servers in Germany where they could be altered according to orders from antifa.” That’s not a spoof. That’s what he said. It only got worse from there.
Giuliani’s lies and lawsuits went from the ridiculous to the dangerous and then the violent. There’s nothing laughable in what stemmed from his perfidy.
Eastman is identified as “an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.” A former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and good friend of Ginni Thomas, he was central to the fake elector scheme.
Eastman was on the stage with Trump on Jan. 6, the culmination of his pressure campaign on then-Vice President Mike Pence. He was particularly involved in a lawsuit to overturn the results of the election in Georgia, where he claimed that nearly 70,000 ballots were fraudulently cast by underaged voters and felons. The indictment says that Co-Conspirator 2 (Eastman) admitted in an email that he and Trump had “been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by experts) has been inaccurate.”
The indictment describes Powell as “an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy.’ Nevertheless, the Defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator 3’s disinformation.”
That’s a pretty good summation of her role in the conspiracy. She was there every step of the way with Giuliani, including at the Hugo Chavez conspiracy press conference. Even though Trump believed her theories were “crazy,” he wanted to give her a special counsel position to investigate “election fraud” and, yes, Hunter Biden.
Clark is described as “a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.” Trump plotted with Clark in an effort to remove acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen so Clark could be put in charge. Then he would use the Department of Justice to force Georgia legislators to overturn the state’s election results and block Congress from counting the Electoral College vote.
The indictment revealed that on Jan. 3, just three days before the insurrection, Clark was the acting attorney general and described an argument he had with deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin. Philbin warned Clark that if Trump tried to stay in office after Jan. 20 on the basis of the election fraud lies, there would be “riots in every major city in the United States.” Clark’s response as described in the indictment: “Well, [Phibin], that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.”
On MSNBC Tuesday evening, former FBI prosecutor Andrew Weissman particularly called out Clark because he was a Justice Department official, making his actions even more egregious. “It is clear to me that he is going to be charged,” Weissman said. “Jeffrey Clark, I know as night follows the day, he is going to be charged.”
YouTube Video
Chesebro is described in the indictment as “an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Chesebro is an appellate attorney who was the initiator of the idea that slates of fake electors could be concocted in the key states, and that members of Congress could be convinced to accept them. The scheme was described in an email written by an unidentified attorney included in the indictment.
“His idea is basically that all of us (GA, WI, AZ, PA, etc) have our electors send in their votes (even though the votes aren’t legal under federal law—because they’re not signed by the Governor); so that members of Congress can fight about whether they should be counted on January 6,” the unidentified attorney wrote. “Kind of wild/creative … We would just be sending in ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the ‘fake’ votes should be counted.”
This person is included in the indictment as “a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Plenty of people would like this person to be Ginni Thomas. Other possible candidates are Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Judicial Watch Founder Tom Fitton, or former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.
Marcy Wheeler thinks it might be Mike Roman, a Trump campaign staffer and opposition researcher. CNN reported last month that Roman was working with Smith’s prosecutors.
All of these people, except possibly Co-Conspirator 6, are lawyers, so they know very well what’s coming now that they’ve been included in Trump’s indictment as alleged co-conspirators.
Sign if you agree: No one is above the law, not even a former president.
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Though they are not named, five of the six co-conspirators are obvious from the information included in the indictment: Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Chesebro. They’re all lawyers—they know they’re not off the hook. In a brief statement after the indictment was announced, Smith said he will “seek a speedy trial so that our evidence can be tested in court and judged by a jury of citizens.” Focusing on Trump as the only defendant, for now, will make that easier.
It also puts the six on notice that they are the next targets, and what information Smith and his investigators have compiled about their part in the conspiracy. That provides more incentive for them to flip on Trump. Here they are:
“Co-Conspirator 1” - Rudy Giuliani
The indictment describes “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” Giuliani was at the center of the election subversion plot from the beginning, and he wasn’t shy about it.
He held a circus of a press conference (no, not that one) on Nov. 19, 2020, where he introduced the theory that, as Mark Sumner wrote, “Democrats engaged in a vast conspiracy to ‘inject’ hundreds of thousands of Biden votes by using voting machines built by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, with the help of wealthy Jew George Soros, that sent American votes overseas to servers in Germany where they could be altered according to orders from antifa.” That’s not a spoof. That’s what he said. It only got worse from there.
Giuliani’s lies and lawsuits went from the ridiculous to the dangerous and then the violent. There’s nothing laughable in what stemmed from his perfidy.
“Co-Conspirator 2” - John Eastman
Eastman is identified as “an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.” A former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and good friend of Ginni Thomas, he was central to the fake elector scheme.
Eastman was on the stage with Trump on Jan. 6, the culmination of his pressure campaign on then-Vice President Mike Pence. He was particularly involved in a lawsuit to overturn the results of the election in Georgia, where he claimed that nearly 70,000 ballots were fraudulently cast by underaged voters and felons. The indictment says that Co-Conspirator 2 (Eastman) admitted in an email that he and Trump had “been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by experts) has been inaccurate.”
“Co-Conspirator 3” - Sidney Powell
The indictment describes Powell as “an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy.’ Nevertheless, the Defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator 3’s disinformation.”
That’s a pretty good summation of her role in the conspiracy. She was there every step of the way with Giuliani, including at the Hugo Chavez conspiracy press conference. Even though Trump believed her theories were “crazy,” he wanted to give her a special counsel position to investigate “election fraud” and, yes, Hunter Biden.
“Co-Conspirator 4” - Jeffrey Clark
Clark is described as “a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.” Trump plotted with Clark in an effort to remove acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen so Clark could be put in charge. Then he would use the Department of Justice to force Georgia legislators to overturn the state’s election results and block Congress from counting the Electoral College vote.
The indictment revealed that on Jan. 3, just three days before the insurrection, Clark was the acting attorney general and described an argument he had with deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin. Philbin warned Clark that if Trump tried to stay in office after Jan. 20 on the basis of the election fraud lies, there would be “riots in every major city in the United States.” Clark’s response as described in the indictment: “Well, [Phibin], that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.”
On MSNBC Tuesday evening, former FBI prosecutor Andrew Weissman particularly called out Clark because he was a Justice Department official, making his actions even more egregious. “It is clear to me that he is going to be charged,” Weissman said. “Jeffrey Clark, I know as night follows the day, he is going to be charged.”
YouTube Video
“Co-Conspirator 5” - Kenneth Chesebro
Chesebro is described in the indictment as “an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Chesebro is an appellate attorney who was the initiator of the idea that slates of fake electors could be concocted in the key states, and that members of Congress could be convinced to accept them. The scheme was described in an email written by an unidentified attorney included in the indictment.
“His idea is basically that all of us (GA, WI, AZ, PA, etc) have our electors send in their votes (even though the votes aren’t legal under federal law—because they’re not signed by the Governor); so that members of Congress can fight about whether they should be counted on January 6,” the unidentified attorney wrote. “Kind of wild/creative … We would just be sending in ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the ‘fake’ votes should be counted.”
“Co-Conspirator 6” - ?
This person is included in the indictment as “a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Plenty of people would like this person to be Ginni Thomas. Other possible candidates are Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Judicial Watch Founder Tom Fitton, or former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.
Marcy Wheeler thinks it might be Mike Roman, a Trump campaign staffer and opposition researcher. CNN reported last month that Roman was working with Smith’s prosecutors.
All of these people, except possibly Co-Conspirator 6, are lawyers, so they know very well what’s coming now that they’ve been included in Trump’s indictment as alleged co-conspirators.
Sign if you agree: No one is above the law, not even a former president.
RELATED STORIES:
TRUMP INDICTED AGAIN
'Scholar' who pressured Pence to overturn election will get a chance to explain to Jan. 6 committee
Trump plotted to toss the acting attorney general, insert a stooge, and block the electoral count
Trump considering Sidney Powell as very special counsel to investigate 'election fraud'
Memo shows how Trump's whole legal team made sure fake electors were ready for Jan. 6 scheme
Giuliani's home searched, phone seized, as investigators finally get past roadblocks laid by Trump