Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Page Number: 69.0

2 

TRUMP v. UNITED STATES 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

legitimate  electors;  and  ultimately,  cause  the  ascertain-
ment of and voting by illegitimate electors” in his favor.  Id., 
at 185–186, ¶10(a).  It is alleged that he went so far as to 
threaten  one  state  election  official  with  criminal  prosecu-
tion if the official did not “ ‘find’ 11,780 votes” Trump needed 
to  change  the  election  result  in  that  state.  Id.,  at  202, 
¶31(f ).  When state officials repeatedly declined to act out-
side their legal authority and alter their state election pro-
cesses,  Trump  and  his  co-conspirators  purportedly  devel-
oped a plan to disrupt and displace the legitimate election
certification process by organizing fraudulent slates of elec-
tors.  See id., at 208–209, ¶¶53–54.

As the date of the certification proceeding neared, Trump
allegedly also sought to “use the power and authority of the 
Justice Department” to bolster his knowingly false claims 
of election fraud by initiating “sham election crime investi-
gations” and sending official letters “falsely claim[ing] that 
the Justice Department had identified significant concerns
that  may  have  impacted  the  election  outcome”  while
“falsely present[ing] the fraudulent electors as a valid alter-
native to the legitimate electors.”  Id., at 186–187, ¶10(c).
When  the  Department  refused  to  do  as  he  asked,  Trump
turned  to  the  Vice  President.    Initially,  he  sought  to  per-
suade the Vice President “to use his ceremonial role at the 
January 6 certification proceeding to fraudulently alter the
election  results.”  Id.,  at  187,  ¶10(d).  When  persuasion
failed, he purportedly “attempted to use a crowd of support-
ers that he had gathered in Washington, D. C., to pressure 
the  Vice  President  to  fraudulently  alter  the  election  re-
sults.”  Id., at 221, ¶86. 

Speaking  to  that  crowd  on  January  6,  Trump  “falsely 
claimed that, based on fraud, the Vice President could alter 
the  outcome  of  the  election  results.”  Id.,  at  229,  ¶104(a).
When this crowd then “violently attacked the Capitol and
halted the proceeding,” id., at 188, ¶10(e), Trump allegedly