Column: Jack Smith’s filing shows that Trump is already starring in a Jan. 6 sequel

Special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case, unsealed last week, is as valuable as a reminder of what Trump did before the election as what he did afterward. Here’s how special counsel Jack Smith opens the narrative against Trump: “Although his multiple conspiracies began after election day in 2020, the defendant laid the groundwork for his crimes well before then.” Smith goes on: “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 by election day were valid.” Voters, be forewarned. “It depends.” Just last Tuesday, a reporter in battleground Wisconsin asked the election-denying candidate, “Do you trust the process this time around?” Trump: “I’ll let you know in about 33 days.” In his debate against Biden, Trump said, after the moderator’s third attempt at asking the question, that he’d accept the outcome if it were a “fair and legal and good election.” Just as in 2020 and 2016, Trump always has an “if.” Translation: “If I win.” Let’s pause to remember American Politics B.T. Smith’s filing against Trump recalled that throughout his 2020 campaign, he told the MAGA faithful just what he told a national TV audience at the Republican National Convention that year: “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.” Four years later, at a rally in Erie, Pa., last Sunday, Trump ranted that Democrats were like criminals in “the way they cheat at elections.” In a recent, and typical, fundraising email, he told backers, “Kamala ordered her Silicon Valley henchmen to censor free speech & rig the election.” And his response to the release of the government filing? He recently told reporters that mail-in ballots are “a whole big scam,” and the same day posted that Democrats were getting Americans living overseas to vote by mail, adding, “Actually, they are getting ready to CHEAT!” Trump repeatedly condemns Democrats for “election interference.” He lies that they’re getting noncitizen migrants to vote, a vanishingly rare occurrence that is against federal law.