Special counsel Jack Smith said in his final report on the case, which was submitted to Congress on Tuesday, that Donald Trump would have been convicted of election interference if he was not elected president in November. Pool File Photo by Charly Triballeau/UPI |
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Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Donald Trump would have been convicted of attempting to overturn the 2020 election if not for his victory in the presidential election in November, Jack Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted the former and future president, said in his final report on the case, which was submitted to Congress early Tuesday.
Trump was charged by Smith with four felony counts in August 2023. However, amid litigation, the special counsel was forced to move to dismiss the case after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November's presidential election.
In ending the election interference case, Smith cited the long-held Justice Department policy that forbids the prosecution of a sitting president.
Following litigation over the release of the final report, the 170-page document, obtained by The New York Times and NBC News, was submitted to Congress early Tuesday, meticulously detailing the case built against Trump.
"The Department's view that the 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," Smith wrote in the report.
"Indeed, but for Trump's election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."
Smith was appointed special counsel in November of 2022, and brought two indictments against the former president the following summer: one concerning election interference and the other regarding Trump's retention of classified documents.
Only one of the two volumes that make up Smith's final report was released Tuesday. The second volume, which concerns the classified documents case that was controversially dismissed this past summer, is being withheld from the public.
The report was submitted to Congress following litigation over its release, with Trump and his lawyers fighting to keep it private. On Monday, U.S District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who oversaw the documents case, permitted the release of Smith's report concerning the election interference case while barring the second volume for review.
Trump railed against the report on his social media platform, Truth Social, after its release early Tuesday.
"Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case before the election," he said in a statement, while incorrectly describing his election victory as a landslide. "THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!"
In the report, Smith defends his decision to charge Trump, whom he accuses of pursuing a criminal conspiracy to maintain his hold of the White House after losing the presidential election to Biden in 2020.
Alleged illegal actions include attempting to induce state officials to ignore legitimate vote counts, manufacturing fraudulent electors in seven states he lost, pressuring Justice Department officials and Vice President Michael Pence to violate their oaths of office to support Trump's false claims and directing an angry mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"The throughline of all of Mr. Trump's criminal efforts was deceit -- knowingly false claims of election fraud -- and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States' democratic process," Smith said.
False claims propagated by Trump included large numbers of dead and ineligible voters had cast ballots and that voting machines had changed votes for him to Biden.
Smith said Trump's election claims -- widely referred to as The Big Lie -- "were demonstrably and, in many cases, obviously false," and that Trump knew there was no fraud in the 2020 election.
"Until Mr. Trump obstructed it, this democratic process had operated in a peaceful and orderly manner for more than 130 years," he said.
Throughout the report, Smith recounts how Trump pursued various efforts to overturn the election, despite knowing he had legitimately lost and that there was no evidence of fraud.
Smith also holds Trump responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection, when thousands of the former president's supporters attacked Congress to prevent Biden's certification as the 46th president, resulting in five deaths and 140 police officers injured.
"Mr. Trump's words inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence," Smith wrote, referring to Trump's Jan. 6 speech at the Ellipse in which he directed his supporters to march on the Capitol and "fight like hell."
"The people who took Mr. Trump at his word formed a massive crowd that broke onto restricted Capitol grounds and into the building, violently attacking law enforcement officers protecting the Capitol and those inside."
Although much detailed in the report was already publicly known through the indictments, Smith, who resigned as special counsel over the weekend, stated Trump's candidacy represented "an unprecedented challenge" for both the Justice Department the courts.
He added that his office "had no interest" in affecting the election.
In a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, included in the report, Smith emphasized that while he relied upon his team, the decision to bring changes against Trump was his alone.
"It is a decision I stand behind fully," he said. "To have done otherwise on the facts developed during our work would have been to shirk my duties as a prosecutor and a public servant.
"After nearly 30 years of public service, that is a choice I could not abide," he said.