Jack Smith particularly interested in Dec. 2020 Trump meeting

On Thursday night, Donald Trump continued what has become a long line of rants against special counsel Jack Smith, tagging the veteran prosecutor with the word “deranged” and once again trying to completely flip the meaning of the Presidential Records Act. Such frothing statements are typical of Trump but they’ve become more frequent and frantic in recent weeks as it becomes clear that the other case against Trump, the one about his involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 election, may be far more serious than the classified documents case Trump has already been indicted for..

Trump is now facing 37 felony charges in the classified documents case, including multiple violations of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and scheming to conceal documents from a federal investigation. In addition, he’s facing an additional 34 felony charges in New York for falsifying business records in an attempt to cover up his payments to two women with whom he allegedly had adulterous sexual encounters.

However, there’s a growing sense that all this could be the tip of a very large legal iceberg that still lies ahead. Because while Smith’s investigation into the classified documents case has revealed Trump and assistant Walt Nauta moving boxes of top secret documents into bathrooms at Mar-a-Lago, the election fraud investigation looks as if it could ensnare Trump, his advisers, his legal team, and Republicans at both the state and federal level who all conspired to overturn the government of the United States.

From the beginning of his investigation, which began when he was named special counsel in November, Smith has followed numerous avenues connected to Trump’s attempts at reversing the outcome of the 2020 election. That has included looking into:

• how Trump’s actions contributed to the violent insurrection on Jan. 6, including possible incitement and failing to act to protect the Congress.

• the multiple instances in which Trump’s legal team made false claims concerning election fraud in efforts to stall or reverse the certification of election results.

• Trump’s phone calls to everyone from governors and state officials down to members of county and district election boards in an effort to interfere with the counting of votes.

• Trump’s false claims about rigged voting machines, which included many of the lies that recently led to Fox News reaching a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.

• Trump’s efforts to replace acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, who would then move to prevent Congress from certifying election results and issue false statements about election fraud.

• the grand scheme created by Trump and Ted Cruz associate, attorney John Eastman, in which Trump pressured state officials to select slates of false electors, with the intention of having these electors be recognized by former Vice President Mike Pence during the final tally of the vote on Jan. 6.

• the draft executive orders that would have seized voting machines and placed them under the control of the military.

• Trump’s pressuring Pence into going along with this scheme, including threats of both political ostracism and physical violence.

It’s a lot of material for investigators to get through. But then, what happened on Jan. 6 was not Trump’s first effort, or even his fifth. There were dozens of thrown-out lawsuits and multiple “perfect calls” to officials before Trump and Eastman got down to crafting a way to just throw out the results. And all the while Trump’s legal team, including Sidney Powell and Rudy Guiliani, were dripping hair dye and spewing increasingly wild claims in courtrooms and in front of cameras across the nation.

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As CNN reports, a lot of those threads came together on one very special occasion: an Oval Office meeting held on Dec. 18, 2020. That meeting included numerous Trump staffers, advisers, attorneys, and just about anyone who seemed to have an idea about how democracy might be broken. In addition to the crowded room, even more people were patched into the meeting by phone. In a freewheeling session that reportedly included “screaming matches” among factions pushing one scheme or another, figures such as Powell, disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and even former CEO of Overstock.com Patrick Byrne pitched ideas so outlandish that even members of Trump’s inner circle blanched.

That meeting included not just pitching, but fleshing out the idea of Trump using the military to seize voting machines in states won by President Joe Biden. It also included proposals for a do-over election with polling stations under military control. As former White House attorney Eric Herschmann said of the meeting when interviewed by the House Jan. 6 committee, “I thought it was nuts.” He also said he told the group of Flynn, Powell, and Byrne to “shut the ‘F’ up.”

During that meeting, the multipart scheme for subverting ceremonial activities on Jan. 6 and turning them into an excuse to claim that Trump had won through the use of false electors and rejecting the results in Biden-won states appeared to become the favored means of moving forward. That scheme was already well underway by this point. Four days before the Dec.. 18 meeting, slates of false electors in seven states won by Biden signed certificates falsely claiming that Trump had won their states.

At the end of the night, Trump issued what may be his most infamous tweet: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” wrote Trump. “Be there, will be wild!”

While the participants and topics of that meeting might be a good cross-section of Trump’s multiple conspiracies to overturn the election, they certainly are not everything that’s coming under the scrutiny of the special prosecutor. Still, the Dec. 18 meeting showed the desperation of Trump’s efforts, and the list of those who were present at the meeting, but not subpoenaed, may be a key to where Smith’s investigation is headed.

In addition, the grand jury has heard from state and county officials in seven states, as well as several members from the slates of false electors. At least “five or six” members of the Secret Service have testified. So have officials at the state and national level of the Republican Party. Many others have been questioned by investigators who have not appeared before the jury.

Others present at the Dec. 18 meeting, like little-known former Homeland Security official Emily Newman, who was reportedly at that point playing a dual role as a member of Powell’s legal team, were there in support of the Powell-Flynn scheme to call in the military. Trump adviser Eric Herschmann seemed to have railed against the conspiracists. It’s not known if either has appeared before the grand jury, though Herschmann did give testimony before the Jan. 6 committee.

It’s not clear if Eastman, Flynn, Powell, or Clark have provided any testimony. It’s very common for those who are most likely to face charges to not give testimony before the grand jury. This could indicate that Trump, Powell, Flynn, Eastman, and Clark are all at the focus of Smith’s investigation.

This group would seem to be among those most likely to face charges. There have been reports of others, including former White House chief of staff Meadows, possibly reaching an agreement with Smith to provide testimony in exchange for reduced charges or improved sentencing suggestions. All such claims remain unconfirmed at this point.

As Trump continues to rail against Smith, it’s clear that the special counsel is far from done. The classified documents case was always the smaller of the two main charges given Smith when he was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith has recently asked for the start of that case to be delayed until October.

That may be just enough time to hand Trump a much thicker set of charges on a subject even more important.