AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File

Wednesday afternoon’s news cycle saw the chatter about the previous night’s vice presidential debate overwhelmed by a 165-page stack of paper, after Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed a bombshell motion filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.

In August, Smith filed a superseding indictment against Trump that was tailored to reflect the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States on the issue of presidential immunity. A superseding indictment replaces a previous existing indictment, and in the new version, Smith brought the same four charges he had brought before, with different and additional supporting arguments.

“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” the motion argues. “With private co-conspirators, the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results…The throughline of these efforts was deceit.”

Trump had objected to the release of this motion, arguing that its release would constitute interference in the upcoming November election. Multiple commentators viewed the filing as Smith’s effort to lay out some of the evidence in advance of a trial that has been repeatedly delayed — and may never happen if Trump is re-elected and successfully directs his DOJ appointees to drop the case. The fact of the November election being only 34 days looms large over the impact this filing may potentially have.

The 165-page motion that was unsealed Wednesday afternoon still contains substantial redactions, but does give a roadmap of the evidence that the Department of Justice believes shows that Trump “resorted to crimes to stay in office,” making a “private criminal effort” that was separate and distinct from his official presidential duties, and therefore not protected by presidential immunity.

Some of this evidence is from information already previously reported or involves publicly made statements, like a Trump aide telling federal investigators that the ex-president responded “So what?” when he was informed then-Vice President Mike Pence had been rushed to a secure location by the Secret Service or Trump’s infamous Jan. 6, 2021 tweet attacking Pence because he “didn’t have the courage” to refuse to certify the Electoral College results. Still, numerous passages in this motion include information not previously known — and already enraging Trump.

Below, some of the most shocking, damning, and just plain weird revelations from this new motion. Throughout the document, individuals whose names are redacted as “CC[number]” are co-conspirators and “P[number]” simply refers to a person who is neither a defendant nor a co-conspirator. Much of the evidence presented seems clearly intended to establish that Trump was aware that he lost the election but publicly made statements to the contrary anyway, and that he was aware of the danger and violence he was inciting, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

11. A plot to declare victory 

Trump was planning to declare victory even before the election, the motion argues repeatedly. His plan all along, as he told multiple advisors, was that he “would simply declare victory before all the ballots were counted and any winner was projected,” the motion states.

10. “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost”

P15, a Trump operative who was the Assistant to the President and Director of Oval Office Operations, told investigators that he witnessed Trump making an “unprompted comment” to his family members (most likely wife Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner), “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”

9. “Make them riot!” 

“In the immediate post-election period, while the defendant [Trump] 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,” the motion states.

P5, who is described as “a Campaign employee, agent, and co-conspirator of Trump,” responded to a colleague’s mention of the “Brooks Brothers riot” (a group of Republican operatives who attempted to disrupt the 2000 vote count in Florida, given this moniker because many of the participants were young men in preppy, navy blue suits) and suggested similar unrest might occur at a location in Detroit, Michigan where votes were being counted.

According to the motion, P5 replied “Make them riot” and “Do it!!!”, voicing support for disrupting the vote counting.

8. Star Wars and Star Trek

We already knew from the Jan. 6 House Select Committee hearings that multiple Trump administration and campaign officials were adamant in their repeated admonitions to Trump that he had lost the election and claims of election fraud were baseless. One senior Trump campaign advisor dunked on the election fraud claims as “conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership” and “derogatorily referred” the lawyers who were pushing these legal cases as the “Star Wars bar,” meaning the bizarre alien creatures from the cantina scene in George Lucas’ hit film.

“[Y]ou can see why we’re 0-32 on our cases,” this advisor wrote. The final tally would have Trump and his allies losing over 60 cases, many in front of Republican-appointed — some even Trump-appointed — judges, and several of these “Star Wars bar” lawyers are facing disbarment and their own criminal prosecutions, including Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and Sidney Powell.

Trump himself mocked Powell during a Nov. 20, 2020 phone call, putting her on mute to call her “crazy” and make a Star Trek reference.

7. Made up, fake numbers

Claims made by Trump and his allies that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants had voted in the election were “baseless” using “false”numbers “that they never verified or corroborated,” and instead changed “from day to day,” the motion declares, and prosecutors intend to prove that they “made up figures out from whole cloth.”

A text from then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows acknowledged a claim made that more than 10,000 dead people voted was false, the motion states, and “the actual number was 12 and could not be outcome-determinative” (could not have changed the election results).

6. Christmas conspiracies

Trump was engaged in text messages and conversations with his alleged co-conspirators around Christmas, the motion states, to scheme about how to ramp up the pressure campaign on Pence. On Christmas Day 2020, several of these co-conspirators were texting amongst themselves and one suggested trying to get Pence to “permit an unlimited filibuster of the certification,” then “ultimately gavel in [Trump] as president,” the motion continues.

5. “F*cking nuts”

Trump wanted then-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to promote a report accusing Dominion Voting Machines of being manipulated in a Michigan county — the same company that has filed multiple defamation lawsuits over similar false claims, settling with Fox News for $787.5 million — and McDaniel refused, telling Trump that she had discussed this report with Michigan’s Speaker of the House, and the “exact assessment” was that the report was “f*cking nuts.”

4. Repeated efforts to pressure Pence, over and over

Pence “gradually and gently” tried to convince Trump to accept the results of the election, even if it meant they lost, the motion states, but Trump would not relent and kept pressuring him to block the certification of the Electoral College votes. The motion lists nine separate conversations that indicate Pence directly testified to investigators regarding the content of these conversations.

Among Pence’s tactics, he tried to flatter Trump by telling him he had taken a “dying political party and gave it a new lease on life,” suggested he save face by not conceding but still “recognize process is over,” and urged him to accept this loss and run again in 2024 — a comment to which Trump replied, “I don’t know, 2024 is so far off.”

Despite Pence’s repeated efforts, the motion adds, Trump “disregarded” his vice president, as well as the “dozens of court decisions that unanimously rejected his and his allies’ legal claims,” and the elected officials (including Republicans) in the targeted states.

Trump eventually scolded Pence that if he didn’t go along with their scheme to thwart the election certification “hundreds of thousands” of people “are gonna hate your guts” — a warning prescient of the violence and “Hang Mike Pence!” chants that would erupt on Jan. 6, 2021.

3. Trump attempts to pressure Gov. Ducey

Then-Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) was also the target of Trump’s pressure campaign, which the motion says started on Nov. 9, two days after the networks projected Biden had won. Ducey repeatedly asked Trump for evidence of his fraud claims but Trump never provided it.

On Nov. 30, when Ducey officially signed the certificate formally awarding Arizona’s electors to Biden, the governor got a call from both Trump and Pence. This is a redacted exhibit to the motion.

2. “All Hell is going to break loose tomorrow”

Trump spoke to Steve Bannon — currently in jail for contempt of Congress over his refusal to cooperate with the Jan. 6 House Select Committee — on Jan. 5, 2021. Less than two hours later, the motion states, Bannon predicted on his podcast about the rally planned for the next day, “All Hell is going to break tomorrow.”

1. Trump was alone when he tweeted his attack on Pence

Trump’s “incendiary tweet” on Jan. 6 lambasting Pence for not having the “courage” to help him overturn the election incited the rioters, the Jan. 6 House Select Committee argued by using multiple clips of video from that day showing a person with a bullhorn reading it out loud and the rioters becoming enraged, plus social media posts and other communications by the rioters.

The DOJ motion gives new details on that tweet, stating that Trump was “alone in the dining room” when he posted it, and the Fox News broadcast had already reported that the riot was ongoing, with the Capitol breached and on lockdown.

Read the full motion below.

gov.uscourts.dcd.258148.252.0 by sarahrumpf

This article has been updated with additional information.

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