# United States of America v. Donald J. Trump - Government's Motion for Immunity Determinations/Section 1A

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​A. Formation of the Conspiracies
Although his multiple conspiracies began after election day in 2020, the defendant laid the groundwork for his crimes well before then. Leading into the election, the defendant's private and Campaign advisors, including P6 (then a private citizen) and P2 (the defendant's Campaign manager), informed him that it would be a close contest and that it was unlikely to be finalized on election day—in part because of the time needed to process large numbers of mail-in ballots prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. They also told the defendant that the initial returns on election night might be misleading—that is, that he might take an early lead in the vote count that would diminish as mail-in ballots were counted because his own supporters favored in-person voting, while supporters of his opponent, Joseph R. Biden, favored mail-in ballots.
Privately, the defendant told advisors—including P6 Campaign personnel, P7 (a White House staffer and Campaign volunteer), and P8 (the Vice President's Chief of Staff)—that in such a scenario, he would simply declare victory before all the ballots were counted and any winner was projected. Publicly, the defendant began to plant the seeds for that false declaration. In the months leading up to the election, he refused to say whether he would accept the election results, insisted that he could lose the election only because of fraud, falsely ​claimed that mail-in ballots were inherently fraudulent, and asserted that only votes counted by election day were valid. For instance:
​By October 2020, P1 a private political advisor who had worked for the defendant's 2016 presidential campagin, began to assist with the defendant's re-election effort. Three days before election day, P1 described the defendant's plan to a private gathering of supporters: "And what Trump's going to do is just declare victory. Right? He's going to declare victory. That doesn't mean he's the winner, he's just going to say he's the winner." After explaining that Biden's supporters favored voting by mail, P1 stated further, "And so they're going to have a natural disadvantage and Trump's going to take advantage of it—that's our strategy. He's going to declare himself a winner."
Immediately following election day on November 3, the defendant did exactly that. As his private and Campaign advisors had predicted to him, in certain states, the defendant took an early lead on election day that began to erode. At approximately 11:20 p.m., Fox News projected that Biden would prevail in the state of Arizona, and according to Campaign Advisor P4 he and the defendant were shocked and angry at this development. As election day turned to November 4, the contest was too close to project a winner, and in discussions about what the defendant should say publicly regarding the election, senior advisors suggested that the defendant should show restraint while counting continued. Two private advisors, however, advocated a different course: CC1 and CC6 suggested that the defendant just declare victory. And at about 2:20 a.m., the defendant gave televised remarks to a crowd of his campaign supporters in which he falsely ​claimed, without evidence or specificity, that there had been fraud in the election and that he had won: "This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. We did win this election."
In the immediate post-election period, while the defendant claimed fraud without proof, his private operatives sought to create chaos, rather than seek clarity, at polling places where states were continuing to tabulate votes. For example, on November 4, P5 —a Campaign employee, agent, and co-conspirator of the defendant—tried to sow confusion when the ongoing vote count at the TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan, looked unfavorable for the defendant. There, when a colleague at the TCF Center told P5 "We think [a batch of votes heavily in Biden's favor is] right," P5 responded, "find a reason it isnt," "give me options to file litigation," and "even if itbis [sic]." When the colleague suggested that there was about to be unrest reminiscent of the Brooks Brothers Riot, a violent effort to stop the vote count in Florida after the 2000 presidential election, P5 responded, "Make them riot" and "Do it!!!" The defendant's Campaign operatives and supporters used similar tactics at other tabulation centers, including in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and the defendant sometimes used the resulting confrontations to falsely claim ​that his election observers were being denied proper access, thus serving as a predicate to the defendant's claim that fraud must have occurred in the observers' absence.
Contrary to the defendant's public claims of victory immediately following election day, his advisors informed him that he would likely lose. On November 7, in a private Campaign meeting that included P2 P3 P4 and White House staffer P9 who came to serve as a conduit for information from the Campaign to the defendant, Campaign staff told the defendant that he had only a slim chance of prevailing in the election, and that any potential success was contingent on the defendant winning all ongoing vote counts or litigation in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. Within a week of that assessment, on November 13, the defendant's Campaign conceded its litigation in Arizona—meaning that based on his Campaign advisors' previous assessment, the defendant had lost the election.
That same day, in an implicit acknowledgement that he had no lawful way to prevail, the defendant sidelined the existing Campaign staff responsible for mounting his legal election challenges. From P2 P3 and others who were telling the defendant the truth that he did not want to hear—that he had lost—the defendant turned to CC1 , a private attorney who was willing to falsely claim victory and spread knowingly false claims of election fraud.
As the defendant placed alternating phone calls to P3 and CC1 throughout November 13, P1 informed CC6 , another private Campaign advisor, of the change, writing, "Close hold don't tell anyone Trump just fired P3 and put CC1 in charge" and ​"You are to report to CC1 When CC6 asked if P2 was "gone too?", P1 replied that "[t]hey all report to CC1 and that P1 had "made a recommendation directly that if CC1 was not in charge this thing is over[.] Trump is in to the end." The next day, consistent with P1 description, the defendant announced his staff change by Tweet, writing, "I look forward to CC1 spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! CC1 P10 P11 CC3 and P12 a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!"
* ↑ GA 501-510 ( ); GA 591-599 ( ); GA 246-247 ( ).
* ↑ GA 501-512 ( ); GA 591-599 ( ); GA 246-249 ( ).
* ↑ GA 505-507 ( ); GA 250-255 ( ); GA 588-589 ( ).
* ↑ GA 1968 at 37:20 (Video of Trump Interview with Chris Wallace 07/19/2020).
* ↑ See https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1288818160389558273 (Donald J. Trump Tweet 07/30/2020).
* ↑ See Donald Trump Interview Transcript with Jonathan Swan of Axios on HBO, Rev (Aug. 3, 2020) https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-interview-transcript-with-axios-on-hbo.
* ↑ GA 1943 at 57:33 (Video of Oshkosh Rally 08/17/2020).
* ↑ GA 1951 at 22:08 (Video of RNC Speech 08/24/2020).
* ↑ GA 1927 at 3:11-3:28 (Video of Donald J. Trump Statement 10/27/2020).
* ↑ GA 1886 at 0:00 ( ).
* ↑ Id. at 0:20 ( ).
* ↑ GA 376-380 at 70-74 ( ).
* ↑ GA 600-602 ( ); GA 610-614 ( ); GA 380-383 ( ); GA 128-130 ( ); GA 161 ( ); GA 370 ( ).
* ↑ GA 154 ( ); GA 600 ( ); GA 181-182 ( ).
* ↑ GA 1974 at 7:44 (Video of White House Speech 11/04/2020).
* ↑ GA 968-996 ( ).
* ↑ Id.
* ↑ Id.
* ↑ Id.
* ↑ GA 997-999 ( ). .
* ↑ GA 774-775 (Donald J. Trump Tweet 11/06/2020); GA 776, https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1325194709443080192 (Donald J. Trump Tweet 11/07/2020).
* ↑ GA 155-158 ( ).
* ↑ GA 1001 (Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. v. Hobbs Hearing Transcript 11/13/2020); GA 1002-1003 (Minute entry and order dismissing Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. v. Hobbs).
* ↑ GA 731-734 ( ).
* ↑ GA 1004 ( ).
* ↑ Id.
* ↑ GA 784-785 (Donald J. Trump Tweet 11/14/2020).