Written by Andrew Gouseward and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith said Donald Trump waged an “unprecedented criminal effort” to stay in power after losing the 2020 election, but 11 It concluded that the president-elect's victory in April's election precluded the case from going to trial. According to a report released Tuesday.
The report comes after Smith filed a four-count indictment against Trump, accusing him of plotting to interfere with vote collection and certification after his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020. It details the decision.
The paper concludes that while the evidence was sufficient to convict Trump at trial, the impending return to office, scheduled for January 20, makes that impossible. .
Mr. Smith has faced relentless criticism from Mr. Trump, but he also defended his investigation and the prosecutors who worked on it.
“Trump's claims that my decisions as prosecutor were influenced and directed by the Biden administration and other political actors are, in a nutshell, It's ridiculous to say the least.”
After his release, President Trump called Smith “a dumb prosecutor who couldn't get a trial before the election” in a post on his website TruthSocial.
Trump's lawyers called the report a “politically motivated attack” in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland released by the Justice Department, calling the report a “politically motivated attack” and calling it a “politically motivated attack” before Trump returned to the White House. He said that making it public would have a negative impact on the presidential transition.
Much of the evidence cited in the report has been previously published.
But that includes several other facts, including that prosecutors were considering charging Trump with inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol under a U.S. law known as the Insurrection Act. Contains new details.
Prosecutors ultimately argued that such charges posed legal risks and that there was insufficient evidence that President Trump intended the “full spectrum” of violence during the riot, and that there was insufficient evidence that President Trump intended the “full range” of violence during the riot and that It concluded that Congress' attempt to block the certification of the 2020 election was unsuccessful.
The indictment charges Trump with conspiring to obstruct the certification of the election, defraud the United States of accurate election results, and deprive American voters of their right to vote.
Although Smith's office determined that charges against some of the co-conspirators accused of helping President Trump carry out the plan may have been justified, the report does not suggest that prosecutors' final conclusions. It is said that this has not been reached.
Several of Trump's former lawyers were previously identified as co-conspirators mentioned in the indictment.
The second section of the report details Smith's lawsuit accusing President Trump of illegally retaining classified national security documents after he left the White House in 2021.
The Justice Department has vowed not to make that part public while legal proceedings against two Trump associates charged in the case continue.
Smith, who resigned from the Justice Department last week, dropped both cases against Trump after Trump won last year's election, citing the department's longstanding policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Neither case went to trial.
Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Trump, who has regularly attacked Smith as “crazy,” described the incident as a politically motivated attempt to damage his campaign and political movement.
President Trump and two former co-defendants in the classified documents case sought to block the release of the report just days before Trump returned to office on January 20, but the court completely blocked the release of the report. refused the request to do so.
U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon, who presided over the documents case, ordered the Justice Department to halt for now its plans to allow certain senior members of Congress to privately view document sections of the report.
Prosecutors have detailed their case against Trump in previous court filings. A 2022 Congressional committee released its own 700-page report on President Trump's actions after the 2020 election.
Both investigations involved Trump spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud after the 2020 election and pressuring state lawmakers not to certify votes that Biden actually won. It concluded that the state tried to take advantage of a fraudulent group of electors who pledged to vote for Trump. The aim is to prevent Congress from certifying Biden's victory.
The effort culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress and unsuccessfully tried to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote.
Mr. Smith's lawsuit faced legal hurdles even before Mr. Trump's election victory. The case was suspended for several months while Trump asserted his claim that he would not be prosecuted for official actions as president.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority largely sided with him, granting the former president broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
