- Former special counsel Jack Smith reportedly had enough evidence to convict President-elect Donald Trump if he had gone to trial.
- The report alleges that Trump motivated and directed the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
- Smith emphasizes his own prosecutorial independence, dismissing Trump’s claims of the investigation being corrupt.
Former special counsel Jack Smith believes he had enough evidence to convict President-elect Donald Trump for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a case he’d been working on for several years.
Trump responded by targeting Smith, and pointing out voters reelected him despite the cases pending against him.
Smith’s report was submitted to Congress and Volume 1 was released to the public by Attorney General Merrick Garland after a court hold blocking its release expired at midnight, per CNN.
Smith’s report shares the findings of his investigation into Trump actions following the 2020 election. After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, the case against him was dismissed.
Volume 2 of the report covers the classified documents investigation, but the attorney general decided not to release it to the public after Smith recommended against its publication, per CNN.
Smith says he believes Trump would have been convicted at trial
The report, which is over 130 pages, details the evidence Smith gathered on Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The report says, “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 alleges in the report that Trump worked to pressure the justice department to investigate false claims of election fraud.
According to the report, Trump told his acting attorney general in a 2020 phone call to “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”
Special counsel tried to draw a line connecting Trump to the Jan. 6 rioters
The report, based on interviews with over 250 individuals and a grand-jury testimony of 55 people, alleges that rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, “had been motivated and directed by Trump.”
The former special counsel went on to say that he believed his office could prove “Trump willfully caused his supporters to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the proceeding by summoning them to Washington, D.C.”
But, Smith said, his office did not find direct evidence — which would include explicit admission or record of communication of co-conspirators — of Trump’s intent to cause the violence that occurred on Jan. 6.
Smith’s office alleged Trump sought to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to delay the vote certification on Jan. 6, 2021, and he supported creating a false slate of electors, per CBS.
A look into violence experienced by law enforcement officers on Jan. 6
The report also dove into the violence experience by law enforcement officers who responded to the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
According to Axios, there were 140 officers who were assaulted during the riot on the Capitol.
“This violence took a lasting toll. In addition to the significant physical injuries inflicted that day, 223 officers suffered ‘unseen injuries,’ including depression and other forms of psychological trauma,” per the report.
An emphasis on Smith’s prosecutorial independence
At the beginning of the report Smith highlighted his own prosecutorial independence, pushing back against claims from Trump that the investigation was corrupt.
“I want it to be clear that the ultimate decision to bring charges against Mr. Trump was mine,” Smith wrote. “Nobody within the Department of Justice ever sought to interfere with, or improperly influence, my prosecutorial decision making.”
Trump’s response to the release of the report
Soon after the report was released Trump took to Truth Social to speak out against Smith’s “fake findings,” the president-elect wrote “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!!!”