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WASHINGTON − Former President Donald Trump has said he had “every right” to “interfere” with the 2020 election he lost in an effort to overturn it. He has refused to say that he’ll accept the outcome of the 2024 election.
Being out of office, Trump cannot ask officials in the Justice Department to help him try to nullify the results, as special counsel Jack Smith says he did last time. But there remains a group of supporters who stand ready to assist Trump, including some who have been investigated, charged and even convicted in connection with his unsuccessful effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Some of Trump’s most stalwart alleged co-conspirators from 2020 are playing less of a role, if any, this time around, including former administration officials like then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and advisor Peter Navarro, who went to prison for refusing to cooperate with the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Some of Trump’s lawyers and legal advisors like Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with the plot and are cooperating in ongoing prosecutions of Trump and other alleged co-conspirators.
But other Trump acolytes old and new have rallied to his cause and indicated they will fight a Trump loss at the precinct level, in Congress and the courts − and on the social media platforms that influence public opinion.
More:‘Team of felons’: Pardoned criminals, conspiracy theorists backing Trump’s 2024 run
Here are some of the more prominent people in MAGA World who could be at the center of a post-election fight over the results:
‘The fixer’ – Boris Epshteyn
A longtime Trump political advisor, legal strategist, fixer and campaign operative, Epshteyn has been described as Trump’s “wartime consigliere” by former Trump White House official Steve Bannon. He was one of 18 people indicted in Arizona for trying to overturn Trump’s loss there in 2020. He has pleaded not guilty.
Epshteyn also matches the person identified as unindicted Co-Conspirator No. 6 in the federal insurrection case against Trump led by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, according to The New York Times and other media outlets and legal analysts. Prosecutors allege that Co-Conspirator No. 6 played a key role in a plan to use fake pro-Trump electors to try to overturn Biden’s victory in as many as seven battleground states, and to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to go along with the plan. (Smith secured a new Jan. 6 indictment against Trump aiming to satisfy a recent Supreme Court ruling saying some of his acts as president granted him immunity.)
Epshteyn, currently counsel and senior advisor to Trump among other roles, had no comment when asked about his role in the 2024 campaign and any plans to contest a loss to Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris. He also had no comment to USA TODAY on whether he was, or was not, Co-Conspirator No. 6 in the Smith filing.
‘The Billionaire Booster’ – Elon Musk
Musk, the world’s richest man and founder of SpaceX and other ventures, has gone from merely being a supporter of Trump to a full-blown campaign surrogate − and financial backer. In recent months, he has used his influential social media platform, X, to boost debunked conspiracy theories smearing Harris and to spread false or misleading claims about the election.
Musk was a speaker at Trump’s Oct, 5 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at which the mega-billionaire donned a black “Make America Great Again” hat and described himself as “Dark MAGA.” Now appearing on Trump campaign billboards along with the candidate, Musk also has been repeating Trump’s threat that, “If Trump loses, this is the last election” that Americans will get.
Musk did not respond to requests by USA TODAY to comment on his role in the election in posts sent to his account on X and via email.
‘The Dirty Trickster’ – Roger Stone
A longtime Trump adviser, political consultant and self-proclaimed “dirty trickster,” Stone has been deeply involved in promoting election conspiracy theories. As a founder of the “Stop the Steal” movement, his alleged participation in efforts to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results drew deep scrutiny from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
Stone was convicted in 2019 of lying under oath to congressional lawmakers to protect Trump’s campaign from the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump later commuted his sentence and eventually pardoned him. A frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago, Stone told USA TODAY in May that he still speaks with Trump occasionally but doesn’t have a formal role in the current campaign. That’s a similar arrangement to past campaigns.
More:New Roger Stone video sheds light on role in Jan. 6 Capitol riot, plot to undo 2020 election
“Everything I do is on a voluntary basis and I kind of pick my shots,” said Stone, who continues to claim that Trump can only lose in 2024 if the election is stolen.
In a new video, Stone is seen saying he wants to send armed guards to dispute the election in Detroit. He also wants to imprison former Attorney General Bill Barr if Trump returns to power. Stone did not respond to requests seeking comment.
‘The Field General’ – Michael Flynn
Trump pardoned Flynn, his first (and short-lived) national security adviser, after the retired Army lieutenant general pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials in late 2016. After Trump lost in 2020, Flynn suggested he declare martial law to “redo” the election because it was stolen from him. He was involved in efforts to overturn the election results, including raising money for an election audit in Arizona.
However, Flynn was not among those charged in the Arizona election case.
Since then, Flynn has continued to spread conspiracy theories about the election and other “deep state” cabals such as thoroughly discredited QAnon accusations of Democratic pedophiles and child traffickers.
In 2024, Flynn has been traveling the country in support of his autobiographical documentary “Flynn.” He recently told an interviewer that if the result isn’t known by Nov. 6, “I feel like people are going to go to these locations where there’s counting, and there could actually be violence, because people are gonna be − people so upset after 2020 and what is very clear in terms of a fraudulent election in certain states − and they’re just not gonna put up with it any more.”
A March 28 movie screening and pool-side reception at Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla. club Mar-a-Lago sold out. And Trump has suggested several times that he intends to find a role for Flynn in his administration if he wins in November.
Flynn did not respond to requests seeking comment.
‘The Operative’ – Michael Roman
A longtime Republican operative and opposition researcher, first for the Koch Brothers and then Trump, Roman was a senior campaign official responsible for Election Day operations in 2020. In that role, Roman allegedly was central to the Trump “alternate” electors scheme that sought to subvert the Electoral College results by recruiting fake electors in battleground states to prevent certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory, prosecutors say. Trump then appointed Roman as a White House special assistant to the president and director of Special Projects and Research.
Roman was among the 18 people indicted in Georgia in addition to Trump, Meadows and others for election fraud. It was Roman’s court motions that forced lead prosecutor Nathan Wade off the case for having an affair with Fulton County, Ga. District Attorney Fani Willis. He has pleaded not guilty.
In 2020, DOJ special counsel Smith alleged, a Trump official matching Roman’s description urged Republican operatives to make Trump supporters riot outside a Detroit polling facility to stop the vote count when it began trending in Biden’s favor.
Roman also was the Trump campaign official who delivered false elector certificates to a Pennsylvania congressman’s chief of state in an attempt to get them to Vice President Mike Pence, Politico reported in 2022.
A source familiar with Roman said he is not working for Trump or related organizations this election.
‘The Propagandist’ – Steve Bannon
A former White House official and chief strategist for Trump, Bannon has for years fueled the political movement behind Trump’s false claims of election fraud and rigged voting systems, encouraging public protests and resistance – by force if necessary.
On his last day in office in 2021, Trump pardoned Bannon, who had been charged with fraud unrelated to the election. But he remains in prison, serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Even so, Bannon’s influential “War Room” podcast reaches millions and has been increasingly riling up Trump’s base with more bogus claims of another rigged election in 2024 and the need to rise up and fight back.
The former investment banker-turned-populist also was involved in the infamous meetings at a Washington hotel where Trump supporters like Stone, Flynn and others gathered to coordinate efforts to overturn the election in the days before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. And he told associates in October 2020 that Trump would falsely claim election victory even if he lost the following month, which he did.
Asked recently if he keeps in touch with Trump, Bannon told the Guardian, “I don’t want to talk about all the conversations, but I stay in contact with the president enough that there is no separation between the War Room and President Trump. If you watch the War Room, you’ll see a lot of stuff pop up in the speeches and what he’s put up on Truth Social.”
‘The Architect’ – Rudy Giuliani
In 2020, Giuliani, the former New York mayor and personal attorney for Trump, was the legal architect and public face of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In that role, he led many of the legal challenges and efforts to promote unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. He was later indicted in Arizona and Fulton County, Ga., for his alleged role in the election subversion case, and was socked with a separate $148 million civil judgment for defaming two election workers whom he falsely accused of election fraud. He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Giuliani was recently disbarred in the District of Columbia based on his misrepresentations of election fraud when serving as Trump’s campaign lawyer in 2020. He was also disbarred in New York.
On Sept. 11, he appeared with Trump, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance and others at a memorial event at Ground Zero in Manhattan honoring those who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Giuliani did not respond to requests seeking comment.
