Mary Trump, the estranged niece of former President Donald Trump, presented what she termed “explosive evidence” on Friday, asserting its significance in the ongoing criminal case against Trump in Washington, D.C. Legal experts weighed in on newly released audio, raising eyebrows over potential implications for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
In August, Trump, a frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was indicted in Washington, D.C., as part of the DOJ’s probe. The charges included conspiring to defraud the government, disenfranchise voters, and corruptly obstructing an official proceeding. Thousands of Trump supporters rallied at the Capitol on January 6, protesting the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Trump, without evidence, alleged widespread voter fraud and maintained his innocence in the case.
According to the latest data from the DOJ, over 1,200 people face charges related to the insurrection, with more than 400 accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement—a felony offense.
The focus turned to a 2021 interview between Trump and ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, recently resurfaced in a newsletter by Mary Trump. She claimed to have provided the audio to a lawyer, stating, “the audio appears to prove two damning admissions” crucial to Jack Smith’s investigation.
In the interview audio, Trump can be heard boasting about the size of the crowd on January 6, stating, “But if you look at the real size of that crowd, it was never reported correctly. There were — it’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken in front of by far.”
Former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rogers, commenting on the audio in Mary Trump’s newsletter, remarked, “The fact that he’s recorded saying, basically, ‘I knew that these were my supporters — they were there to do what I wanted them to do to stop the certification’ is good evidence of his participation.”
Newsweek reached out to Mary Trump and Donald Trump for comments, but no responses were received.
During the interview, Karl questioned Trump about his intentions to go to the Capitol. Trump responded, “I — no, I was going to and then Secret Service said you can’t and then by the time — I would have, and then when I get back, I saw — I wanted to go back. I was thinking about going back during the problem to stop the problem, doing it myself. Secret Service didn’t like that idea too much.”
An ex-White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, testified before the January 6 House select committee, alleging that Trump tried to reach his supporters at the Capitol, grabbing the wheel of the presidential limousine and shouting at the Secret Service, saying, “I’m the f***ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now.”
Attorney Joe Gallina from Call to Activism stated in Mary Trump’s newsletter: “For hours on January 6, Donald Trump did absolutely nothing to stop the violence, killing, and potential assassination of his own Vice President. If prosecutors draw the nexus that Donald Trump knew these were HIS people, that they turned violent, and did absolutely NOTHING to stop it with such a flimsy excuse as implying the Secret Service didn’t like it, it is superb evidence to show his intentions.”
The trial is set for March 2024, with Judge Tanya Chutkan yet to rule on Trump’s legal team’s motion to dismiss the case.
