CNN Sources Say DOJ Targeting WH Meeting Where Trump Bragged About Election Security — Weeks Before Floating Fraud Conspiracies

CNN sources say Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team is zeroing in on an Oval Office meeting at which then-President Donald Trump bragged about election security just weeks before he began floating fraud conspiracies.

The reporting team of Sean Lyngaas, Kylie Atwood, Zachary Cohen, and Evan Perez has learned that Smtih’s team is drilling down on a February 2020 White House meeting at which Trump was so excited about election security, he wanted to hold a press conference to take credit for it.

Lyngaas and Perez joined Monday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead to break down their reporting for Bianna Golodryga, in for Jake Tapper:

GOLODRYGA: Sean, let’s start with you. What happened at this February 2020 meeting?

SEAN LYNGAAS: Bianna, there was a lot that happened. It was an election security briefing. U.S. officials walked through the ways in which the election system was secure and telling Trump about mail-in ballots, security audits for voting, and a range of ways in which the election would be protected. And Trump, according to our sources, even suggested that he was so impressed by the work done to secure the election, that he even suggested doing a press conference where he could take credit for that work.

So, this is, as you say, a contrast to what he was saying just weeks later where he ramped up conspiracy theories and was full bore in the fact that the election was not going to turn into his favor, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: That is fascinating that we know he wanted to hold a press conference to tout this. But, Sean, I do want to play a bit of what Trump was saying in public just a few weeks after that meeting in April of 2020. Take a listen.

TRUMP: The mail ballot, they cheat, OK? People cheat. Mail ballots are very dangerous thing for this country because they’re cheaters. They’re going to collect them. They’re fraudulent in my cases.

GOLODRYGA: And, Sean, that was just a sample of what he said. There was a lot more of this kind of rhetoric.

LYNGAAS: Right, the rhetoric escalated exponentially really. So, quietly, in the weeks before it started to escalate, you have him acknowledging factual information from his briefers. So, that’s why we’re told special counsel office made examining this meeting because of what it says about Trump’s mindset and how he absorbed very factual information that was reiterated to him and which remained true on election day. Some of these productions are why the U.S. officials declared the most secure in U.S. history, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah.

So, Evan, what does this mean for Jack Smith’s investigations into Trump’s actions?

EVAN PEREZ: Well, a couple of things we could draw from this. One of the things is the sheer breadth of this investigation. It is reaching way back into February of 2020. And we know that the special counsel has been really focused on trying to understand what the Trump — what the former president seemed to believe, what he was being told by his experts, and then what he was being told by his non-experts.

These are people who are telling him that the election was stolen by Venezuela, by Italian satellites, by Chinese hacking. So that’s what, you know, if you’re the prosecutor, that’s what you want to focus on, to try to determine whether he really believed this stuff, or whether this was all part of the — the act that the former president was engaged in, as a way to overturn the election.

GOLODRYGA: And this is coming as we’re waiting to hear from the grand jury.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.