US prosecutors unveil new details of Trump's alleged bid to overturn election loss

'It doesn't matter if you won or lost ... you still have to fight like hell,' former president was said to have told family

Donald Trump takes part in a Fox News meeting in September in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Getty Images / AFP

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Donald Trump acted outside the scope of his duties as president when he pressured state officials and his deputy, Mike Pence, to try to overturn his 2020 election defeat, prosecutors said in a court filing made public on Wednesday.

The government’s 165-page brief starts the next round of legal fighting over whether the latest version of the indictment can proceed after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents in many instances cannot face charges for official acts while in office.

“Although the defendant was the incumbent president during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one,” US special counsel Jack Smith’s office said.

The brief offers new insights into the government’s argument that Mr Trump’s interactions with Mr Pence should stay in the case. The government says Mr Trump was acting as a private citizen and candidate when he allegedly pressured Mr Pence to intervene to stop or delay Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s win.

Prosecutors laid out a sweeping account of Mr Trump's conduct after the 2020 election, much of which has already been made public through news reports, findings from the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot or the indictment obtained by Mr Smith in the case.

It includes an allegation that a White House staff member heard the former president tell family members that: “It doesn't matter if you won or lost the election – you still have to fight like hell."

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges accusing him of a conspiracy to obstruct the congressional certification of the election, defraud the US out of accurate results and interfere with Americans’ voting rights.