Special counsel Jack Smith’s team plans to use experts to testify about former President Donald Trump’s cellphone activity on Jan. 6, 2021, along with the cellular activity of people in the Capitol area on that day.
The prosecution revealed the plan in court documents filed Monday, the same day Smith asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election were protected by presidential immunity.
Prosecutors detailed their plans for expert testimony in a three-page court filing. It outlines testimony from three experts who are expected to testify at trial.
The first expert, who is not named in court documents, “plotted the location history data for Google accounts and devices associated with individuals who moved, on January 6, 2021, from an area at or near the Ellipse to an area encompassing the United States Capitol building.”
Trump spoke at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.
That first expert “will describe and explain the resulting graphical representations of that data, and it will aid the jury in understanding the movements of individuals toward the Capitol area during and after the defendant’s speech at the Ellipse.”
Another unnamed expert is expected to testify about the process of determining device location, the collection and use of location history data by Google LLC. That expert testimony “will aid the jury in understanding the movements of individuals toward the Capitol area during and after the defendant’s speech at the Ellipse,” according to prosecutors.”
The final unidentified expert specifically looked at Trump’s White House cellphone. That expert extracted and processed data from the White House cell phones used by the defendant and one other person, identified only as Individual 1 in court documents. The expert analyzed images found on the phones, websites visited and “usage of these phones throughout the post-election period, including on and around January 6, 2021; and specifically identified the periods of time during which the defendant’s phone was unlocked and the Twitter application was open on January 6.”
The Washington D.C. trial is set to start March 4. Federal prosecutors charged Trump with four counts related to contesting the 2020 election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. The charges include conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction, and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted, according to the indictment. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
That trial is set to start the day before Super Tuesday on March 5, 2024, when 15 Republican primaries and caucuses are scheduled to take place.
