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What the new Trump indictment has already proven
(www.vox.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
This episode, one of the new details in that four-count indictment released Tuesday, serves to underscore the prosecution’s central argument: that Trump knowingly lied about the outcome of the 2020 election in service of a plot to defraud the American people of the right to choose their own leader.
The combination of Trump’s awful judgment and willingness to take extreme actions based on his absurd beliefs makes him a uniquely dangerous person to hold any high office: a man who thinks that the vice president failed by being “too honest” in opposing what amounted to a kind of coup attempt.
In one of the most striking passages, Smith quotes “a Senior Campaign Advisor” — reported by CNN to be Trump confidante Jason Miller — admitting that their team couldn’t defend the arguments they were making (about Georgia specifically).
He chose to believe demonstrably nutty people like Powell over virtually every credible authority in the United States: his own Justice Department, his own political advisors, leading Republicans around the country, and repeated rulings against him in open court.
In one of the most jaw-dropping exchanges revealed by the indictment, Smith reports on a conversation on the topic between Co-Conspirator 4 — apparently Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark — and deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin.
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