trump used knowingly false because of election fraud against state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes. he allegedly organized fraudulently to be like yours i seven targeted states of ari arizona, georgia, michigan, nevada, muskoka pennsylvania an wisconsin. smith said trump attempted to use power and authority of the doj to conduct shame crime election investig investigations & electric targeted states that falsely claimed that the just departmen had identified a significant concern that may have impacted the election outcome. the indictment also claimed tha trump attempted to enlist a vic president to use his ceremonial role at the january 6 certification proceeding to fraudulently alter the election results. it is really the study doctor because for the first time in american history a former president is being prosecuted b a political opponent wields the power of the criminal justice system for what he believed in
6th when people lose confidence in their government. yeah, well, charles ramsey made the point last hour, he s concerned about whether that could potentially fuel violence as well. oliver, thanks so much. brianna. all right, jim, let s zero in on this fake electors scheme aspect of this indictment. the scheme encompassed seven state, seven targeted states that trump lost and the goal according to the indictment was to submit illegitimate pro-trump electors to congress in order to, quote, create a fake controversy at the certification proceeding. now, one of the states at the heart of that plot mentioned dozens of times in the indictment was michigan and we are joined by a key official who stood in the way of that effort, that is michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson. secretary benson, thank you so much for being with us today and spending some time with us. 16 fake electors have been charged as you are well aware by your attorney general there in michigan. jack smith refers to
the defendant to use the department to open sham election investigations with knowingly false claims of election fraud. who do you suspect that is? i would expect, but it certainly sounds like jeffrey clark. exactly. that was the guy who was in charge of environmental rules brought up from the depths of the justice department because donald trump and his allies thought he would be able to push the states to illegally overturn the elections, only in battleground states, of course. co-conspirator 5, an attorney who assisted in devising to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding. so that is somebody working with jeffrey clark presumably. yeah, these last two are more general terms. they re not as exact ly as the first four. i m not comfortable guesting. what is interesting is we have been wondering if the former president would be the only one
still, they say, trump worked to create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and an anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election. the indictment going methodically, state-by-state, accusing trump and his unnamed co-conspirators of creating fraudulent slates of electors in seven states. of trying to compel the justice department to sham election crime investigations. of pressuring vice president mike pence to reject legitimate electoral votes on january 6th. and ultimately, sending his supporters to the capitol to obstruct the certification proceeding and exert pressure on the vice president. we re going to walk down to the capitol and we fight. we fight like hell. and if you don t fight like hell, you re not going to have a country anymore. reporter: smith s indictment documents dozens of trump s alleged lies, and the pressure he put on republican state officials. in a phone call, trump pushing georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger to find the v