The Jan. 6 indictment against former President Donald Trump includes references to six co-conspirators that prosecutors say assisted his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
While the indictment does not name names, the identities of some co-conspirators have been confirmed.
Giuliani’s status as a co-conspirator was confirmed thanks to references in Smith’s indictment to a rambling voice message that co-conspirator No. 1 left “for a United States Senator” on Jan. 6.
Quotes from the phone call in the indictment match a widely-reported message that Giuliani intended to leave for Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., on Jan. 6. He instead sent it to another senator, who then leaked the message to The Dispatch.
The indictment describes Giuliani as “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.”
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Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Giuliani, shared a statement regarding Giuliani’s status as a co-conspirator with multiple outlets.
“Every fact Mayor Rudy Giuliani possesses about this case establishes the good faith basis President Donald Trump had for the actions he took during the two-month period charged in the indictment,” Goodman said.
Smith’s indictment identifies co-conspirator No. 2 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.”
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That individual has been confirmed to be former Trump attorney John Eastman, whose legal team has acknowledged his status as a co-conspirator in statements to the media.
Eastman’s attorney, Charles Burnham, argued to the Washington Post that Smith’s indictment “relies on a misleading presentation of the record to contrive criminal charges against Presidential candidate Trump and to cast ominous aspersions on his close advisors.”
“[I]f he were invited to plea bargain with either state or federal prosecutors, he would decline. The fact is, if Dr. Eastman is indicted, he will go to trial. If convicted, he will appeal,” Burnham’s statement continued. “The Eastman legal team is confident of its legal position in this matter.”
Smith’s indictment refers to co-conspirator No. 3 as “an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy,” adding, “Nonetheless, the Defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator #3’s disinformation.”
Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell matches No. 3’s description thanks to Smith’s detailing of her efforts to force Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to contest the results of his state’s election. The indictment references that co-conspirator No. 3 filed a lawsuit against Kemp on Nov. 25, 2020, and that it was dismissed on Dec. 7 the same year. Those dates match up with the lawsuit Powell filed in federal court.
Smith’s indictment references co-conspirator No. 4 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.”
That conspirator has been identified as former acting Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Clark, thanks to an email quoted in the indictment. The email, sent to Clark by another DOJ official, opposed Clark’s efforts to overturn the election. Quotes from the email included in the indictment line up with email text sent to Clark that was revealed in a Senate report on Trump’s efforts to use the DOJ in 2020.
Smith’s indictment identifies co-conspirator No. 5 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.”
That description lines up with lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, thanks to an email referenced in the indictment that lines up with another email revealed in the House investigation into Jan. 6.
The indictment references an email that co-conspirator No. 5 sent to Rudy Giuliani on Dec. 13, 2020, regarding a push to put forward phony electors in an attempt to overturn President Biden’s victory. The date and details of that email line up with one Chesebro was revealed to have sent to Giuliani thanks to the House Select Committee on January 6.
Smith’s indictment identifies co-conspirator No. 6 as “a political candidate who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
It is unknown to whom this refers.