Betrayal, Part 3: Power at Any Cost
OPINION & ANALYSIS · BETRAYAL: THE PLAN ALL ALONG (3 of 4)
Russia's goal in 2020 was to help Trump and make Americans doubt their votes. When he lost, Trump spent two months doing the second part himself, and a special counsel said the evidence was enough to convict.
By Joseph J. Jackson, Founder of FMNN and author of The Death of the American Dream. Published October 18, 2026. Facts current as of October 17, 2026.
Disclosure: FMNN sells merchandise referencing Donald Trump. Our reporting follows the record regardless.
The call to Atlanta
On Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who had voted for Donald Trump, got on the phone with the president of the United States. The call ran about an hour. Trump had lost Georgia by 11,779 votes.
"I just want to find 11,780 votes," Trump told him. [1]
Raffensperger refused. Four days later, a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from counting the votes that made Joe Biden president. A special counsel would later conclude that the admissible evidence against Trump "was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction." He was never tried. Instead, he was elected again.
This part of the series is not about Russia directly. It is about what Russia wanted from American democracy, and who delivered it.
THE LEDGER
| Row | What the record shows | Label | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAID | Trump to Georgia's secretary of state, Jan. 2, 2021: "I just want to find 11,780 votes." | Documented, Tier 1 | Recording of the call [1] |
| DID | Trump and allies organized slates of fake electors in seven states and pressed Vice President Mike Pence to reject certified electoral votes. | Documented, Tier 2 | Superseding indictment, U.S. v. Trump, 1:23-cr-257 (D.D.C.) [2] |
| RESULT | Special counsel Jack Smith wrote that, but for Trump's election, "the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial." | Documented, Tier 2 | Final Report, Vol. 1, released Jan. 14, 2025 [3] |
| GAP | A president who swore to faithfully execute the laws tried to overturn an election he lost, and the case was dropped only because he won the next one. | Documented | [2][3][4] |
| KNEW | Smith's indictment states Trump was told repeatedly, by his own officials and advisers, that his fraud claims were false. | Documented, Tier 1 (as alleged) | Indictment [2] |
| SAID AFTER | Trump called the case a "witch hunt," and his Justice Department fired prosecutors who worked on it. | Documented, Tier 1 | [5] |
The Georgia recording is Tier 1: the president said it himself, and the tape exists.
What you need to know
Jack Smith brought two federal cases against Trump: one over the 2020 election and Jan. 6, and one over classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Neither case charged anything related to Russia. No federal prosecutor has ever charged Trump with a Russia-related crime. FMNN says that plainly because the honest case does not need inflation.
What connects this part to the series is not a Russian order. It is a shared goal. U.S. intelligence found Russia spent 2020 trying to make Americans doubt their elections. Trump spent the end of 2020 doing the same thing, with far more reach than any troll farm.
What Moscow wanted in 2020
In March 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified its assessment of foreign threats to the 2020 election. It found Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations aimed at "denigrating President Biden's candidacy," supporting Trump, and "undermining public confidence in the electoral process." [6]
It found Putin had authority over Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker the U.S. sanctioned as a Russian agent, who fed claims about Biden to Trump allies. And it found that even after the election, Russian influence actors kept pushing narratives questioning the results. [6]
In September 2020, the Department of Homeland Security warned that Russia was amplifying attacks on mail-in voting. [7]
Russia did not need to hack a single voting machine. U.S. intelligence found it didn't try. [6] Its aim was to get Americans to stop believing their votes counted. In our view, the most effective work on that goal was done from inside the White House.
FMNN draws no line of coordination here. The record shows no Russian role in planning Jan. 6. It shows two parties working toward the same result, one with a troll farm and one with the presidency.
The plan
Smith's indictment, filed Aug. 1, 2023, charged Trump with four crimes:
- Conspiracy to defraud the United States (18 U.S.C. 371)
- Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding (18 U.S.C. 1512(k))
- Obstruction of an official proceeding (18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2))
- Conspiracy against the right to vote and have votes counted (18 U.S.C. 241) [2]
The indictment laid out the steps. Trump pushed false claims of fraud that his own officials told him were false. He pressed state officials, including Raffensperger, to change results. His allies organized fake electors in seven states he lost to sign certificates claiming he won. He pressured Pence, in private and in public, to reject the real electors on Jan. 6. When Pence refused, Trump attacked him by name while the Capitol was under siege. [2]
Remember the first charge. Conspiracy to defraud the United States is the same law Mueller used to charge the Russians who attacked the 2016 election. [8] In 2018 it was used against Moscow's operatives. In 2023 it was used against an American president. The target was the same: the integrity of an American election.
The day
On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told a crowd at the Ellipse to march to the Capitol and "fight like hell." Thousands broke through police lines. About 140 police officers were assaulted. Rioters chanted for Pence to be hanged. [2][9]
On Jan. 13, the House impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection. On Feb. 13, 57 senators voted to convict, including seven Republicans. That was the most bipartisan vote to convict a president in American history, and it fell 10 votes short. [10]
How the case ended
The case never reached a jury. On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that presidents have absolute immunity for core constitutional acts and at least presumptive immunity for all other official acts. [11] Smith rewrote the indictment to drop conduct the ruling put off limits, including Trump's attempts to use the Justice Department. The superseding indictment, filed Aug. 27, 2024, kept the same four charges. [2]
Trump won the November 2024 election. On Nov. 25, at Smith's request, the case was dismissed under the Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. [4]
The documents case ended earlier. On July 15, 2024, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida, a Trump appointee, dismissed it, ruling Smith's appointment unconstitutional. Smith dropped his appeal after the election. [12] On Feb. 23, 2026, Cannon permanently blocked the release of Smith's report on the documents case. [13]
Smith's election report was released Jan. 14, 2025. It said the evidence was enough to convict. [3] No court ever tested it.
This is how far Trump will go. The record does not settle why he fought so hard. It settles what he did. He tried to throw out the votes of millions of Americans, he was told it was wrong by his own people, and he kept going. A man who will do that to stay in office will do a great deal to get back in, and to stay a second time.
Reality of the Situation
The White House did not respond to a request for comment sent Oct. 17, 2026, with a 4 p.m. ET deadline. FMNN will add any response it receives.
What his defenders say: The election was stolen. Jan. 6 was a peaceful protest. Smith's case was a political prosecution, and the voters cleared Trump in 2024.
What the record says:
- "The election was stolen." False. Trump's own attorney general, William Barr, said the Justice Department found no fraud on a scale that could have changed the result. Trump's campaign and allies lost more than 60 lawsuits. Georgia counted its presidential ballots three times. [2][14]
- "It was a peaceful protest." False. About 140 officers were assaulted, and more than 1,500 people were charged, many for assaulting police. On his first day back in office, Jan. 20, 2025, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly all of them. [9][16]
- "Smith's case was political." The grand jury that indicted Trump was made up of D.C. residents. Many key witnesses, including Pence, Raffensperger and Barr, were Republicans who had served or supported Trump. [2]
- "The voters cleared him." Winning an election is not a verdict. The case was dropped because of a Justice Department policy about sitting presidents, not because the evidence failed. Smith said so in writing. [3][4]
Voices of Resistance
Brad Raffensperger did not have to refuse. He was a Republican statewide official, and the president of his own party was asking for help. He said no, and he let the recording speak. His family received death threats for months after. [15]
Reading the Pattern
Force under color of law. The fake electors signed official-looking certificates, and Trump pressed the vice president to use a constitutional ceremony to undo the vote.
Accountability delayed and partial. A special counsel found enough evidence to convict. The defendant's election ended the case.
Who Carried the Story
The Washington Post first published the Raffensperger recording on Jan. 3, 2021. The House Jan. 6 committee's televised hearings in 2022 put the fake-elector scheme in front of a national audience. Smith's final report, released days before the 2025 inauguration, was covered heavily for a single news cycle.
Closing
The recording of that Georgia call is still public. You can hear Raffensperger's even voice and the president's demand for 11,780 votes, one more than he needed.
Russia's spies spent 2020 trying to convince Americans their elections were rigged. On that January call, the president of the United States tried to overturn one. Moscow could not have asked for more.
Sources
- Recording and transcript of the Jan. 2, 2021 call between President Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, The Washington Post, Jan. 3, 2021.
- United States v. Donald J. Trump, No. 1:23-cr-257 (D.D.C.), Indictment (Aug. 1, 2023) and Superseding Indictment (Aug. 27, 2024) — justice.gov; Daily Signal on the superseding indictment.
- Special Counsel Jack Smith, Final Report, Volume One: The Election Case, released Jan. 14, 2025 — justice.gov; Axios summary.
- Government's motion to dismiss without prejudice, U.S. v. Trump, 1:23-cr-257, Nov. 25, 2024.
- AP reporting on Justice Department firings of prosecutors who worked on the Smith cases, 2025.
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections, ICA 2020-00078D, declassified Mar. 16, 2021, pp. i–ii, 2–5 — dni.gov
- CBS News, DHS bulletin on Russian amplification of mail-in voting criticism, Sept. 2020.
- United States v. Internet Research Agency LLC, No. 1:18-cr-32 (D.D.C.), Indictment, Feb. 16, 2018 (Count One, 18 U.S.C. 371).
- U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, Capitol Breach cases data; House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, Final Report, Dec. 22, 2022.
- U.S. Senate roll call vote, Feb. 13, 2021 (57–43).
- Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593 (2024) — justia.com
- Just Security, on Judge Cannon's July 15, 2024 dismissal of U.S. v. Trump (S.D. Fla. No. 9:23-cr-80101).
- WION, on Judge Cannon's Feb. 23, 2026 order blocking release of Smith's Volume 2.
- AP, "Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud," Dec. 1, 2020; Georgia Secretary of State, 2020 recount and audit results.
- Reporting on threats to the Raffensperger family (Reuters, 2021).
- The White House, Proclamation granting pardons and commutations for offenses related to Jan. 6, 2021, Jan. 20, 2025.
Updates and corrections
No corrections as of publication.
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