Indictment Details Trump’s Attempt to Overturn Swing State Election Outcomes
The federal indictment against former President Donald Trump, concerning his efforts to remain in office despite losing the election, details actions Trump and his co-conspirators allegedly took to get state officials to change legitimate electoral votes. The indictment says the pressure campaign involved knowingly making false claims of voter fraud — many of which we’ve written about before.
“Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power,” the indictment says. “So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”
Trump “launched his criminal scheme” shortly after Election Day, the indictment charges, saying the conspiracy initially targeted Arizona, which Joe Biden won by a margin of 10,457 votes; Georgia, an 11,779 vote-margin; Michigan, a 154,188 vote-margin; Pennsylvania, 80,555 votes; and Wisconsin, 20,682.
Here, we explain what the indictment says about those five states.
Arizona: False Claims of Noncitizens Voting
Arizona was a pivotal state in Trump’s conspiracy to persuade state officials to change electoral votes, the indictment says. Senior staffers on his campaign had told him on Nov. 7, 2020, that he had at most a 10% chance of winning the election and that he would have to win Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, where vote counts or litigation were continuing. Five days later, on Nov. 12, several TV news networks called Arizona for Biden, so by his own campaign’s assessment, Trump had lost the election.
On Nov. 13, Trump campaign lawyers discontinued one lawsuit contesting votes in the state.
“So the next day, the Defendant turned to Co-Conspirator 1, whom he announced would spearhead his
