President-elect Donald Trump would have faced conviction for illegally attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election—an election he lost—if he had not been successfully re-elected in 2024, according to the individual who led US government investigations into him.
Special Counsel Jack Smith stated in a partially released report that the evidence against Trump was “sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”
Trump responded, calling Smith “deranged” and dismissing the findings as “fake.”
Trump was accused of pressuring officials to reverse the 2020 election result, knowingly spreading false claims of election fraud, and attempting to exploit the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He denied any wrongdoing.
Having been president at the time of the alleged actions, Trump spent four years out of office before being re-elected to the White House in November. He will resume the presidency next week.
Following his 2024 victory, many of the legal challenges he faced have largely been resolved, with the interference case now dismissed.
Some of the content in Smith’s report had already been made public in an October filing, which outlined Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn his defeat and how Smith might have pursued prosecution. However, the full report, released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) to Congress, provides additional details on why Smith pursued and eventually closed the case.
- It justifies the case against Trump by accusing him of “unprecedented efforts to unlawfully retain power” through a variety of methods, including “threats and encouragement of violence against his perceived opponents”
- The report continues: “The throughline of all of Mr Trump’s criminal efforts was deceit – knowingly false claims of election fraud”
- The report details “significant challenges” faced by investigators, including Trump’s “ability and willingness to use his influence and following on social media to target witnesses, courts, and Department [of Justice] employees”
- Addressing why the case was closed, the report acknowledges that the US Constitution forbids the prosecution of a sitting president
- The document goes on to explain: “But for Mr Trump’s election [in 2024] and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial”
- In a letter accompanying the release sent to the attorney general, Smith denies any suggestion the case was politically motivated: “The claim from Mr Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the [President Joe] Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable”
- Smith further reflects in the accompanying letter: “While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters”
The 137-page document was sent to Congress after midnight on Tuesday, after a period of legal jostling that culminated in a judge clearing the way for the first part of Smith’s report to be released.
The judge, Aileen Cannon, ordered a hearing later in the week on whether to release the second part of the report – which focuses on separate allegations that Trump illegally kept classified government documents at his home in Florida.
Posting on his Truth Social website, Trump maintained his innocence, taunting Smith by writing that the prosecutor “was unable to get his case tried before the election, which I won in a landslide”.
Trump added: “THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!”
Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the US government investigations into Trump. Special counsels are chosen by the DoJ in cases where there is a potential conflict of interest.
In the interference case, Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the result of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
Both this case and the separate classified documents case resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who pleaded not guilty and sought to cast the prosecutions as politically motivated.
But Smith closed the cases after Trump’s election in November, in accordance with DoJ regulations that forbid the prosecution of a sitting president.
The report explains: “The department’s view that the [US] Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind.”
It adds that prosecutors found themselves at a crossroads: “The [2024] election results raised for the first time the question of the lawful course when a private citizen who has already been indicted is then elected president.”
Tuesday’s release comes after a period of legal back-and-forth, during which Judge Cannon put a temporary stop on releasing the whole Smith report, over concerns that it could affect the cases of two Trump associates charged with him in the separate classified documents case.
Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, are accused of helping Trump hide the documents.
Unlike Trump’s, their cases are still pending – and their lawyers argued that the release of Smith’s report could prejudice a future jury and trial.