Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 filing resurfaces as Trump revives 2020 election claims

As President Donald Trump announced that he will give a primetime ​national address on Thursday night about what he claims to be the rigged 2020 elections, former special counsel Jack Smith's deposition from 2025 is going viral on social media. Smith pursued indictments against Trump following the Jan 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, claiming that Trump showed criminal intent by refusing to intervene. Now, with Trump bringing the same narrative back to light, Spencer's words are echoing louder. 

Trump announced that he will speak about newly declassified intelligence on investigations into U.S. elections in a national address on Thursday, with Reuters reporting that he will also discuss voting machine vulnerabilities. This is the same narrative that he ran with after losing the 2020 presidential election, prompting the riots in which Trump supporters attempted to block the confirmation of former President Joe Biden. 

Following the violence and investigations, Smith successfully obtained a four-count indictment against Trump in 2023 for working to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent riot. The indictment detailed handwritten notes from former Vice President Mike Pence about how Trump sought to exploit the violence that occurred to remain in office.  While the Justice Department moved to hold him accountable, the indictment and the investigations were dropped after Trump became president in 2024, due to the longstanding rule of the Justice Department not to pursue charges against sitting presidents, as per NPR. 

The documents of Smith's investigation were also thrown out, but tapes of his detailed deposition to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee were released to the public last year, in which he explained why he sought the indictment against the president. He told lawmakers that the riots "did not happen" without Trump, as he is the "most culpable and most responsible person" in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election. "These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, did not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit," Smith said. 

In the viral video being shared on X, Smith added that Trump was "getting calls from people he trusts, people he relies on, and he still refused to come to the aid of the people at the Capitol." Thus, he asserted that it was "evidence for criminal intent" in the case.  

In the testimony, Smith further expressed that he expects Trump and his Justice Department to target him in the future for his investigations. His assumptions, in part, turned out to be true as the president continues to push the narrative that the 2020 elections were rigged. According to Reuters, his televised speech could be used to again press the false claim that he lost the 2020 election due to massive fraud, despite numerous courts, ballot audits, and his first-term Justice Department suggesting there was no evidence of it.