'Chilling': Michigan elections head reacts as CNN ID's Trump campaign aide in Smith filing

The Michigan secretary of state joined CNN on Monday night to react to a new report that identified the campaign aide for former President Donald Trump who prosecutors said tried to "sow confusion" in Detroit, at one point even urging a colleague to "find a reason" to challenge legitimate votes that heavily favored Joe Biden.

Special counsel Jack Smith wrote in his massive new filing in Trump's Washington, D.C. election subversion case that "Person 5," a campaign employee and co-conspirator, "tried to sow confusion" during the vote count process. When told by a colleague that they believe the batch of votes is right and "heavily" favored Biden, "Person 5" responded "find a reason it isn't" and "give me options to file litigation" — "even if itbis (sic)."

As the conversation happened on Election Day, crowds gathered in front of the building where those ballots were counted. And when the colleague suggested there could be civil unrest over the ballot counting, "Person 5" responded: "Make them riot."

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins said her network can now report, citing a source familiar with the matter, that Mike Roman, Trump's head of election day operations, is "Person 5" in Smith's filing.

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Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan secretary of state, told Collins on Monday night that there was a "clear line" between the Trump campaign and an "intention to incite violence" outside the ballot-counting building.

"It's chilling because it underscores both, I believe, knowledge and intent to create disruption and a recognition that regardless of the results or even knowledge that the election had been lost at that point, there would be an intention to keep pushing a lie in a way that was intended to not just disrupt the counting of valid votes, but the peaceful transfer of power in our country," she said.

When Collins asked if Smith's evidence about what was said behind the scenes scared her, Benson said it did.

"It scared us in that moment, seeing everything unfold. It's chilling now because it's a reminder that the 2020 election is behind us. Everything that we're up against in 2020 is not. The 2024 election could very well be a resurgence in these same types of tactics, perhaps even more virulent and more vitriolic or sophisticated even than we dealt with in 2020."

Benson later added it remains to be seen whether Roman could face criminal charges over the actions outlined by Smith.

"That's certainly what the special counsel's filing and I think the genesis of this process will play out in the months ahead," she said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.