Indictment Leaves Clues to Reputed Co-Conspirators

The federal indictment of Donald Trump issued Tuesday left a half-dozen names out, but it detailed actions it says the accused co-conspirators took to help the defeated president stay in office. The accounts provided, added to other reported information and the findings of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, make it possible to match names to accusations. Here's how that shapes up, per USA Today and the BBC:

• Co-Conspirator 1: Not even Rudy Giuliani's spokesman contests that his boss is this person. The indictment's description is "an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant's 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not." Giuliani, a former personal lawyer of Trump's, promoted false claims about the election around the country, including the accusation that two Georgia election workers committed election fraud—which the filing mentions.
• Co-Conspirator 2: The indictment describes this person 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." John Eastman wrote and circulated a memo explaining the plan. The California Bar filed charges against him for actions that sound like the ones he's accused of in the indictment.
• Co-Conspirator 3: This person is an attorney whose election fraud theories were called "crazy" by Trump in private conversations. That would be Sidney Powell. In addition, No. 3 sued Georgia's governor on Nov. 25, 2020, over a false claim of "massive election fraud," the filing says. Powell is one of four lawyers listed on such a suit.
• Co-Conspirator 4: This is a Justice Department official who tried to "use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud," the filing says. Jeffrey Clark wrote letters to pressure certain state officials to launch such investigations. The indictment also says No. 4 "worked on civil matters"; Trump made Clark acting head of the department's Civil Division just before the election.
• Co-Conspirator 5: A Trump attorney who helped come up with the fake electors plan and was first worked on efforts to change the election results in Wisconsin, then expanded to other states. That description could apply to other lawyers, but the actions described most closely align with those of Kenneth Chesebro.
• Co-Conspirator 6: The identity of this person, described as a political consultant, is the least clear. An email review by the New York Times suggests No. 6 is Boris Epshteyn, who was a strategic adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign. An email from Epshteyn to Giuliani about choosing lawyers to assist in the fake electors scheme matches a description in the indictment. Epshteyn advises Trump now on how to coordinate lawyers working for the former president.

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