In addition to the former president, the indictment lists six co-conspirators, including four attorneys, a Justice Department official, and a political consultant who “helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification” of votes.
The co-conspirators are not guaranteed to face criminal charges, but as Special Counsel Jack Smith said in a Tuesday evening press conference, “Our investigation of other individuals continues” — a line that suggests further indictments could be in the pipeline.
While they are unnamed, many clues in the indictment offer insight into who prosecutors believe played a role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock
Co-Conspirator 1, an Attorney
Co-Conspirator 1 is described in the indictment as “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.”
This is widely believed to be Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who worked as an attorney for Trump and spent months hosting press conferences and appearing on television and in courtrooms to contest the results of the election.
Rudy Giuliani.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Giuliani wasinterviewed in the Justice Department’s probeahead of the indictment, but has not been charged himself.
Separately, Giuliani has been a subject of a Georgia special grand jury probe into attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results for Trump. He is also defending himself against disbarment proceedings inWashington, D.C.andNew York, both in direct response to his false election claims.
Co-Conspirator 2, an Attorney
The indictment refers to Co-Conspirator 2 as “an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.”
John Eastman.Susan Walsh/AP/Shutterstock
Pence did not, insteadreleasing a statementhours before Congress met to certify the election forJoe Biden, informing both the president and the public that he didn’t have the constitutional power — or any intention — to intervene with the country’s vote.
Co-Conspirator 3, an Attorney
“Nonetheless, [Trump] embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator 3’s disinformation,” the indictment notes.
Sidney Powell.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
Powell was well-known for the bizarre conspiracy theories she publicly espoused about how Trump lost to Biden. On both television interviews and in press conferences, Powell detailed an alleged scheme of thousands of co-conspirators, involving the major political parties and lasting decades, in which voting systems in the U.S. actually had ties to the late Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chavez and were in fact secretly capable of switching, creating and destroying massive amounts of votes.
Co-Conspirator 4, a Former Justice Department Official
Co-Conspirator 4 is described in the indictment as “a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.”
Many believe that this is former Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, who was acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil division at the time. A lengthy2021New York Timesreportalleged he had “been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results.”
Part of that plan allegedly involved making Clark himself acting attorney general, according to the House committee that earlier investigated the Jan. 6 riots.
Co-Conspirator 5, an Attorney
Co-Conspirator 5 is described in the indictment as “an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Chesebro is among those whose testimony was subpoenaed as part of the Georgia grand jury’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
Co-Conspirator 6, a Political Consultant
Co-Conspirator 6 is the big mystery, described in the indictment as “a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
As Co-Conspirator 6’s description could potentially apply to many in Trump’s orbit, it’s too early to tell who might be the person in question. There are speculations aroundVirginia “Ginni” Thomas— the wife of Supreme Court JusticeClarence Thomasand founder of a consulting firm — who was found to have pressured Republican lawmakers in Arizona to choose their own electors.
Ginni Thomas.Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Some, though, have suggested that Thomas is only garnering attention because of the scandal that would ensue if she was revealed to be Co-Conspirator 6. Other names floating around as possible matches include advisersSteve Bannon,Peter NavarroandRoger Stone, in addition to several more.
In any case, the final conspirator — as with all the others previously mentioned — has not been indicted and is only mentioned in Trump’s indictment to add context to the former president’s charges.
source: people.com
