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 BILLSTEPIEN (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 MARCSHORT (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 byelection day were valid.

For instance:

• In an interview on July 19, 2020, when asked repeatedly if he would accept the results of the election, the defendant said he would “have to see” and “it depends.”
• On July 30, despite having voted by mail himself earlier that year, the defendant suggested that widespread mail-in voting provided cause for delaying the election, tweeting, “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
• In an interview on August 2, the defendant claimed, without any basis, that “[t]here is no way you can go through a mail-in vote without massive cheating.”
• At a campaign event in Wisconsin on August 17, the defendant told his supporters, “[t]he only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged, remember that. It’s the only way we’re going to lose this election, so we have to be very careful.”
• In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on August 24, the defendant said that “[t]he only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.”
• On October 27, during remarks regarding his campaign, the defendant said, “[i]t would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3rd, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate, and I don’t believe that that’s by our laws. I don’t believe that. So we’ll see what happens.” The defendant said this despite—or perhaps because—his private advisors had informed him that it was unlikely that the winner of the election would be declared on November 3.

By October 2020, STEVEBANNON, a private political advisor who had worked for the defendant’s 2016 presidential campaign, began to assist with the defendant’s re-election effort. Three days before election day. STEVEBANNON 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, STEVEBANNON stated further, “And so they’re going to have a natural disadvantage and Trump’s going to take advantage of it that’s or 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 JASONMILLER 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: GIULIANI and BORISEPSHTEYN  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, MIKEROMAN, 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 MIKEROMAN “We think [a batch of votes heavily in Biden’s favor is] right,” MIKEROMAN 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. MIKEROMAN 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 BILLSTEPIEN JUSTINCLARK JASONMILLER and White House staffer ERICHERSHMANN 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 acknowledgment that he had no lawful way to prevail, the defendant sidelined the existing Campaign staff responsible for mounting his legal election challenges. From BILLSTEPIEN JUSTINCLARK and others who were telling the defendant the truth that he did not want to hear, that he had lost the defendant turned to GIULIANI 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 JUSTINCLARK and GIULIANI throughout November 13, STEVEBANNON informed BORISEPSHTEYN , another private Campaign advisor, of the change, writing, “Close hold don’t tell anyone Trump just fired JUSTINCLARK and put GIULIANI in charge” and

“You are to report to GIULIANI . When BORISEPSHTEYN asked if BILLSTEPIEN was “gone too?”, STEVEBANNON replied that “[t]hey all report to GIULIANI and that STEVEBANNON had “made a recommendation directly that if GIULIANI was not in charge this thing is over[.] Trump is in to the end.” The next day, consistent with STEVEBANNON description, the defendant announced his staff change by Tweet, writing, “I look forward GIULIANI spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! GIULIANI, JOSEPHDIGENOVA, VICTORIATOENSING, SYDNEYPOWELL and JENNAELLIS to a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!”