- Trump was indicted for a third time on Tuesday, this time for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
- The indictment refers to six unnamed co-conspirators in the wide-ranging plot.
August 2, 2023 — This article has been updated to reference new reporting from the New York Times on the likely identity of co-conspirator 6.
The Department of Justice indicted former President Donald Trump on Tuesday — his third indictment this year — over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The 45-page indictment claims that six of Trump's associates were co-conspirators in the plot, but doesn't name any of them. But the documents and public reporting offer some helpful clues.
Here are the likely identities of each co-conspirator:
Co-conspirator 1: Rudy Giuliani
This co-conspirator, whom the indictment refers to as an "attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant's 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not," is almost certainly former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.The indictment alleges that co-conspirator 1 played a key role in attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona, including directly engaging with then-Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican.
Pressed for evidence by Bowers, co-conspirator 1 is alleged to have said "we don't have the evidence, but we have lots of theories."
Bowers testified to the January 6 committee last year that it was Giuliani who made a similar statement.
Co-conspirator 2: John Eastman
This co-conspirator, referred to in the indictment as an "attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President's ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election," is likely John Eastman.The indictment alleges that this co-conspirator circulated a "two-page memorandum" outlining the plan.
That memo, authored by conservative lawyer John Eastman, was first reported by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book "Peril," and was later shared with CNN in September of 2021.
Co-conspirator 3: Sidney Powell
This co-conspirator — identified as an attorney whose "unfounded claims of election fraud" were privately deemed "crazy" by Trump, even as the then-President "embraced and publicly amplified" the co-conspirator's claims — was likely "Kraken" attorney Sidney Powell.The indictment alleges that co-conspirator 3 filed a lawsuit against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp claiming that voting machines in the state caused "widespread election fraud." That lawsuit was dismissed on December 7.
As has been widely reported, it was Powell who filed that lawsuit.
Co-conspirator 4: Jeffrey Clark
Identified in the indictment as a "Justice Department official" who "attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud," is likely Jeffrey Clark, then the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division.
The indictment notes that Trump, in the days before January 6, offered co-conspirator 4 the job of acting attorney general, only to back off of that plan when senior Justice Department officials threatened to resign if that happened.
We know from testimony before the January 6 committee last year that Trump attempted to make Clark the acting attorney general, only to be met by the resignation threat.
Co-conspirator 5: Kenneth Chesebro
The indictment identifies co-conspirator 5 as an "attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding."
The document notes that co-conspirator 5 wrote a "Wisconsin Memo" arguing that electoral loyal to Trump should "meet and cast votes" on the day of the Electoral College vote in order to "preserve" the slate in the event that Trump's lawsuits prevailed in the state.
The New York Times reported in February 2022 that Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer aiding Trump's post-election efforts, was the author of that memo.
Co-conspirator 6: Boris Epshteyn
The identity of this unnamed co-conspirator is not as obvious as the others.
The indictment identifies the person as a "political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding."
This co-conspirator is alleged to have been provided a list of pro-Trump attorneys in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to co-conspirator 1 — almost certainly Giuliani. The co-conspirator is also said to have participated in a December 12 conference call with pro-Trump electors in Pennsylvania and "attempted to confirm phone numbers" for six United States senators on January 6.
On Wednesday, after the original publication of this article, the New York Times reported that co-conspirator 6 was likely Boris Epshteyn, a Russian-American political strategist who worked on Trump's 2020 campaign.
The Times cited an email that Epshteyn reportedly sent to Giuliani on December 7, 2020 with the subject line "Attorneys for Electors Memo."
The email, the Times reported, stated "below are the attorneys I would recommend for the memo on choosing electors," before naming lawyers in seven states.