Special counsel zeroes in on Trump’s false election claims: report

The special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot is concentrating on whether he and his associates ripped off donors by boosting incorrect allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election, according to a report. 

Jack Smith’s office has sent out a slew of subpoenas since the beginning of March to a number of Trump’s advisers, campaign aides, Republican political operatives and consultants involved in the 76-year-old’s failed re-election campaign, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Along with seeking fundraising documents, a number of former Trump aides have testified to a Washington grand jury, including former senior White House adviser Stephen Miller and former acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli, the newspaper said. 

The fundraising part of Smith’s investigation is scrutinizing money raised between Nov. 3, 2020, and Jan. 20, 2021, when Trump left the White House, to determine whether the campaign violated wire fraud laws that make it illegal to send false claims via email with the intent to defraud people. 

The subpoenas targeted communications that will allow investigators to compare what Trump aides were telling each other about the veracity of the election and what they were repeating in the fundraising appeals to conservative donors.

The newspaper pointed out that a report from the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot concluded that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee’s fundraising operation raked in $250 million between the November election and Jan. 6 and that up to 25 emails a day were sent to supporters during that time.

The fundraising appeals claimed the election was “rigged” and that Democrats had tried to steal the presidency from Trump. 

A federal judge in March shot down Trump’s claim of executive privilege, clearing the way for more former Trump aides, like one-time White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, to testify before the grand jury. 

Apart from the Capitol riot, Smith is also investigating the handling of classified documents found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida resort and whether the 45th president obstructed justice in that case. 

That probe is said to be further along than the investigation into Jan. 6, the report said. 

Trump also faces a 34-count felony indictment in Manhattan over a hush-money payment before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels and a grand jury investigation in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the Peach State.