During his vice presidential debate against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) claimed that former President Donald Trump supported the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election. Days later, Trump is once again accusing Democrats of “rigging” that election and crying foul over the Justice Department submitting evidence in its election interference case against him — evidence that demonstrates he didn’t have much of a problem with the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Wednesday, a sprawling evidentiary brief was unsealed in the DOJ’s prosecution against the former president for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The filing revealed new details about Trump’s actions in the aftermath of his election loss, and his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
According to the Justice Department, Trump was alone in the White House dining room on Jan. 6 when he authored his now infamous tweet accusing Vice President Mike Pence of lacking the “courage” to overturn the election on his behalf. The tweet was sent around the same time that Pence was being evacuated from the Capitol as rioters stormed the building.
The DOJ claims that when Trump was informed of his vice president’s situation, and that Trump replied, “So what?”
The brief’s release incensed Trump, who has been attempting to delay all of the legal proceedings against him until after the election.
“I didn’t rig the 2020 Election, they did!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after the filing was unsealed.
In a separate post, Trump claimed that the DOJ had engaged in election interference by submitting the filing just weeks before Election Day.
“FOR 60 DAYS PRIOR TO AN ELECTION, THE DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE IS SUPPOSED TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT WOULD TAINT OR INTERFERE WITH A CASE. THEY DISOBEYED THEIR OWN RULE IN FAVOR OF COMPLETE AND TOTAL ELECTION INTERFERENCE. I DID NOTHING WRONG, THEY DID! THE CASE IS A SCAM, JUST LIKE ALL OF THE OTHERS, INCLUDING THE DOCUMENTS CASE, WHICH WAS DISMISSED!” he wrote.
Trump continued ranting on Thursday, citing Greg Jarrett on Fox News describing the release as election interference.
There is no explicit DOJ policy banning the department from carrying out the full extent of its duties for a period ahead of an election. It’s worth noting that in 2016, just days before Election Day, former FBI Director James Comey wrote to Congress informing them that his department was continuing to investigate Hillary Clinton’s emails — an eleventh-hour revelation that rocked the Clinton campaign.
Pence’s refusal to try to overthrow the government on Trump’s behalf saw him exiled from the MAGA movement, and though Vance is quite willing to rewrite the former president’s history, it’s Trump himself who can’t stop undermining the GOP’s revisionism.
On Tuesday night, Vance asserted on the national debate stage that Trump only ever claimed there were “problems” with the 2020 election. “On January 20th, what happened? Joe Biden became the president. Donald Trump left the White House,” he added.
After inciting a riot intended to overturn the Democratic process, Trump did leave the White House on Inauguration Day — and in his anger broke with more than a century of tradition by refusing to attend the swearing in of his successor. To this day, Trump refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 election and — if things don’t go his way in November — has indicated his willingness to do so again.
When Trump was asked on Tuesday whether he will trust the election process next month, he indicated he’ll only trust it if he wins. “I’ll let you know in about 33 days,” he said.
From Rolling Stone US
