Special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment listed six unnamed accomplices. Here we connect the dots.
Jack Smith’s indictment refers to six “co-conspirators” who allegedly helped Trump. They’re not named in the document itself, but he also didn’t work very hard to obscure their identities. Based on the descriptions and previous reporting, here’s who (at least most) of those anonymous individuals appear to be:
- “Co-Conspirator 1, [Rudy Giuliani,] an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” Giuliani is the most obvious option here based on previous testimony and other records of his central place in the post-election scheming.
- “Co-Conspirator 2, [John Eastman,] an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.” Eastman’s attorney has confirmed his client is, in fact, “Co-Conspirator 2” and that he will be sending a memo to Smith explaining why Eastman is innocent.
- “Co-Conspirator 3, [Sidney Powell,] an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy.’ Nonetheless, the Defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator 3’s disinformation.” Powell makes the most sense here given the details about the lawsuits in the indictment and the “crazy” quote, which was part of the House Jan. 6 report.
- “Co-Conspirator 4, [Jeffrey Clark,] 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.” Clark is the best option here, given information made public during the January 6 hearings.
- “Co-Conspirator 5, [Kenneth Cheseboro,] an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” Cheseboro is the best option here given what we learned from the House Jan. 6 committee and other publicly reported information.
- “Co-Conspirator 6, [???] a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” I have to admit that this one is difficult to parse out. There is rampant speculation about the identity of this sixth name, but nothing confirmable as of yet. Still, five out of six isn’t bad.
All of this can be gleaned from a quick read of the indictment. What’s less clear is whether any of the co-conspirators will face similar charges to those filed against Trump. In his brief press appearance at DOJ headquarters on Tuesday, Smith promised that “our investigation into other individuals continues.” That at least sounds like Trump may have some company standing trial for trying to overthrow our democracy.
Source: MSNBC
