‘Make them riot’ in Detroit. Trump 2020 election case marked by new allegations

• Special prosecutor Jack Smith expands allegations in criminal case against Donald Trump for attempting to overturn 2020 election
• Trump pressured a top Republican to spread false claims about Michigan voting machines after the election, according to new filing
• A Trump campaign employee allegedly ‘sought to create chaos’ in Detroit as allies tried to block absentee ballot counting

A Donald Trump campaign operative urged a colleague to “make them riot” in Detroit as supporters gathered outside an absentee ballot counting center the day after the 2020 election, according to a newly unsealed court filing.

“Do it!!!,” the unnamed campaign employee allegedly said in discussions about the TCF Center, where Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread fraud fueled an unsuccessful effort to block ballot counting in the heavily Democratic city. 

The conversation was among a handful of new Michigan-related details publicly released Wednesday as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing case against Trump, the former president who is accused of felonies for attempting to overturn his loss. 

Smith described the campaign employee as a co-conspirator who had brushed off warnings that potential “unrest” in Detroit could escalate to resemble a violent effort to stop vote counting in Florida’s 2000 presidential election. 

The unnamed campaign operative “sought to create chaos” in Detroit as the campaign prepared litigation to try and stop the county in court, Smith wrote. 

Related:

• Trump indictment: How Michigan, Detroit factor into charges over 2020 election
• Barr to Trump: Detroit not rigged, vote machine claims ‘idiotic’
• Judge dismisses Antrim County lawsuit that fueled Trump voter conspiracies

Later in mid-December, Trump allegedly asked then-Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel to publicize a widely discredited report from Antrim County that suggested voting tabulators there had been compromised.

McDaniel, a Michigan resident, called the report inaccurate. And after discussing it with then-state House Speaker Lee Chatfield, she told Trump the report was “fucking nuts,” according to the court filing. 

In the 165-page document unsealed Wednesday, Smith outlined what he called "private crimes" by Trump as he argued against a request for presidential immunity in the case. Trump faces multiple felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by attempting to overturn the election. 

Trump, who is running for president a third time, has called the indictment part of a "witch hunt" to deny him a return to the White House.

Earlier this week, Trump's attorneys urged additional redactions from Smith's court filing before it was made public, arguing the special counsel was trying to influence the upcoming election by releasing new details of the investigation.

Smith's office "wants their politically motivated manifesto to be public ... in the final weeks of the 2024 Presidential election while early voting has already begun throughout the United States," his attorneys wrote.

The new filing comes after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined presidents have absolute immunity for official acts, requiring Smith to reframe the indictment around the new restrictions. 

Like the original indictment filed last year, Michigan figures heavily in the new document.  The state, and Detroit, are mentioned a combined 60 times in the 165-page document.

The filing chronicles how Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani allegedly “attempted to pressure the Michigan legislature to overturn the valid election results” by passing a joint resolution calling the election results into doubt.

Chatfield and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, both Republicans, maintained throughout the post-election turmoil that they had not been provided any evidence of fraud that would change the outcome of the election. They told Trump the same, according to court filings.  

Then-candidate Joe Biden won Michigan by a margin of about 154,000 votes, or 2.7%.

The Antrim County Report emerged after attorney Matt DePerno convinced a judge in early December 2020 to let him bring in an outside firm and examine Dominion voting machines after an initial reporting error. 

DePerno had sued over a close vote on an unrelated ordinance. He has pleaded not guilty to separate felony charges over his alleged attempts to obtain and access voting machines throughout the state.

The Antrim report was discredited not long after its publication, but not before Trump seized on it as conclusive evidence the election was rigged against him, even as multiple senior advisers and staff attempted to persuade him otherwise. 

Trump handed then-Attorney General Bill Barr the Antrim County report on the day he resigned, according to transcripts of Barr’s interviews during a congressional investigation into Jan. 6, 2021.

“‘This is absolute proof the Dominion machines were rigged,’” Barr said Trump told him. “‘The report means that I’m going to have a second term.’”

But Barr told investigators he thought the reporter was “very amateurish” and arrived at “nonsense” conclusions.

Trump's attempt to overturn his 2020 loss effectively ended on Jan. 6, 2021, when Vice President Mike Pence refused to block congressional certification of the election despite riots at the U.S. Capitol. 

In a Tuesday debate, Trump's new running mate, JD Vance, declined to say whether Trump lost four years ago or whether he would certify an election if put in the same position as Pence.

Vance defended his position Wednesday during a campaign event in Michigan.

"I'm focused on the election 33 days from now, because I want to throw Kamala Harris out of office and get back to common sense economic policies," Vance said in Auburn Hills.

"And by the way, to all of you listening out there, I believe that we are going to have the safest and most secure election in 2024 that we've had, because the RNC is fighting for election integrity in a way that it frankly wasn't four years ago."