Jack Smith, at the time the special counsel, delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against Donald Trump at the Justice Department on Aug. 1, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — A final report from former Department of Justice prosecutor Jack Smith contends that had President-elect Donald Trump not won in November, he would have been convicted on charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The report was released just after midnight Tuesday, following a court battle to keep the document hidden from the public.
The roughly 140-page report is Smith’s final record of the investigation that never made it to trial, as Trump repeatedly delayed the case, ultimately escalating his assertion of presidential criminal immunity to the Supreme Court.
Smith, who resigned Friday, detailed the investigation’s findings that Trump attempted to undermine Joe Biden’s 2020 victory by pressuring state officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to lie about results, and knowingly spreading false claims that rallied his supporters to violently attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“As set forth in the original and superseding indictments, when it became clear that Mr. Trump had lost the election and that lawful means of challenging the election results had failed, he resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power,” Smith wrote.
Smith closed his federal cases against Trump following the president-elect’s victory on Nov. 5.
“The Department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not tum 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.
“Indeed, but for Mr. 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.”
A second volume of Smith’s report focusing on his investigation of Trump’s alleged illegal hoarding of classified documents at his Florida estate following his presidency has not been made public. Trump’s two co-defendants in the case have legally challenged the document’s release.
A federal hearing on that second volume’s release is scheduled for later this week in Florida.
Trump slams report, Smith
Trump, who is set to again occupy the Oval Office six days, dismissed the report in a post overnight on his platform Truth Social.
In it, he name-called the prosecutor and conflated Congress’ non-criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack with Smith’s wider probe of Trump’s weeks-long conspiracy with others to subvert the 2020 election.
“Deranged Jack Smith was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss,’ Crooked Joe Biden, so he ends up writing yet another ‘Report’ based on information that the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs ILLEGALLY DESTROYED AND DELETED, because it showed how totally innocent I was, and how completely guilty Nancy Pelosi, and others, were. Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide. THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!,” Trump wrote.
The long, winding litigation
A federal grand jury handed up its initial indictment of Trump on Aug. 1, 2023, charging him with four counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump’s attempts to dismiss the case based on his argument that former presidents are protected from criminal prosecution.
After a federal appeals court also denied the criminal immunity argument, Trump brought the case to the Supreme Court.
The justices ruled last summer that presidents enjoy criminal immunity for their core official duties and presumptive immunity for actions taken on the outer perimeter of the office. However, the justices ruled that former presidents do not receive a shield from criminal prosecution for personal acts.
Smith adjusted his investigation accordingly, removing allegations of Trump’s pressure on Justice Department officials, and a grand jury handed up a superseding indictment, still charging the same four counts, in late August.