It was a criminal scheme.
“By October 2020, P1 a private political advisor who had worked for the defendant's 2016 presidential campaign, began to assist with the defendant's re-election effort. Three days before election day, P1 described the defendant's plan to a private gathering of supporters: "And what Trump's going to do is just declare victory. Right? He's going to declare victory. That doesn't mean he's the winner, he's just going to say he's the winner."11 After explaining that
Biden's supporters favored voting by mail, P1 stated further, "And so they're going to have a natural disadvantage and Trump's going to take advantage of it that's our strategy. He's going to declare himself a winner. "12
Immediately following election day on November 3, the defendant did exactly that. As his private and Campaign advisors had predicted to him, in certain states, the defendant took an early lead on election day that began to erode. At approximately 11:20 p.m., Fox News projected that Biden would prevail in the state of Arizona, and according to Campaign advisor P4 he and the defendant were shocked and angry at this development. 13 As election day turned to November 4, the contest was too close to project a winner, and in discussions about what the defendant should say publicly regarding the election, senior advisors suggested that the defendant should show restraint while counting continued. 14 Two private advisors, however, advocated a different course:
CC1 and CC6 suggested that the defendant just declare victory. 15 And at about 2:20 a.m., the defendant gave televised remarks to a crowd of his campaign supporters in which he falsely”