President-elect Donald Trump would have been convicted of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which he lost had he not been re-elected in 2024, because the evidence against Trump was “sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction”, Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the US government’s investigation into Trump, wrote in a partially published report on Tuesday, the 14th of January, reports the BBC.
Trump was accused of pressuring officials to change the 2020 election results, of knowingly spreading lies about election fraud and of trying to exploit the riots at the US Capitol on the 6th of January 2021.
Trump will return to the presidency next week, and the various legal challenges he faced have largely evaporated following the success of the 2024 elections. The case of election interference has now also been dropped.
Some of the material in Smith’s report was already known, but the report submitted to Congress by the Department of Justice (DoJ) details why Smith pursued the case and eventually closed it.
Smith justifies the case against Trump by accusing him of “an unprecedented effort to illegally retain power”, using a variety of methods, including “threats of violence and incitement to violence against his perceived opponents”.
“The throughline of all of Trump’s criminal efforts was deceit – knowingly false claims of election fraud,” the report continues.
The report details “significant challenges” faced by investigators, including Trump’s “ability and willingness to use his influence and social media to target witnesses, the courts, and [Justice] Department employees”.
Smith concluded that, while the DoJ interprets the Constitution as preventing the trial of a sitting President, his office “assessed that the evidence at trial was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction”.
Smith denied allegations that the case was politically motivated, calling such claims “laughable”, and noted that “our team stood up for the rule of law.”
Prosecutor Smith’s 137-page report was sent to Congress early on Tuesday after a judge authorised its release. Later this week, Judge Aileen Cannon will hold a hearing to decide on the release of the second part, which deals with allegations that Trump illegally stored secret documents in his Florida home.
Trump claimed his innocence on the Truth Social website and mocked Smith, writing that the prosecutor “failed to have his case heard before the election, which I won landslide”.
Trump added: “THE ELECTORS HAVE SPOKEN!!!”
Both this case and a separate classified documents case brought criminal charges against Trump, but after Trump’s election in November, Smith dropped both cases under DoJ rules.
The report explains that the US Constitution prohibits the prosecution of a sitting President regardless of the gravity of the crimes or the merits of the case, with the DoJ standing firm in its prosecution efforts.
It also notes that prosecutors faced a dilemma: “The results of the 2024 election raised for the first time the question of how to legally proceed when a private citizen who has already been indicted is elected President.”
The release of the report was delayed because of Judge Cannon’s concern that it could affect the cases of Trump aides Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who are accused of helping Trump hide classified documents.
Their lawyers argued that the release of the report could affect the next jury and trial, as their cases are still pending.