Donald Trump faced sufficient evidence for conviction in election case, special counsel report says

Open the White House Watch newsletter for free

Your guide to what the 2024 US elections mean for Washington and the world

Donald Trump was facing “sufficient” evidence to convict him at trial on charges of seeking to overturn the result of the 2020 US presidential election, according to the special counsel who led the case against the president-elect.

Jack Smith, who was appointed to oversee the cases against Trump, brought two sets of charges against the former president, one of which accused him of interfering in the outcome of the 2020 elections, which Joe Biden won.

Smith ultimately moved to reject both measures after Trump won the 2024 election based on a long-standing Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of sitting presidents.

That opinion “is categorical and does not depend on the seriousness of the crimes charged, the strength of the evidence presented by the government, or the merits of the prosecution, which are fully supported by the office,” Smith wrote in an early final report on the case. Tuesday.

“Indeed, but as for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency,… [special counsel’s] Smith added that the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.

The report comes as a blow to Trump, less than a week before he is sworn in on January 20.

After the 137-page report was published, Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, called Smith “a feckless prosecutor who couldn’t prosecute his case before the election, which I won in a landslide.”

The report concludes one of two landmark cases over which Smith presided as special prosecutor. Trump was the first former US president to face federal criminal charges, and the indictments unleashed a fierce legal battle in the run-up to the presidential election in November.

In the report, Smith, who resigned from the Justice Department last week, criticized Trump for using his online presence to influence legal proceedings.

The President-elect’s “ability and willingness to use his influence and social media following to target witnesses, the courts, and Department staff” was a “significant challenge” and required Smith’s office to “engage in time-consuming litigation to protect witnesses from threats.” said the special counsel.

Smith also said a continuation of the election case could have helped clarify several aspects of the Supreme Court ruling that last year granted former presidents immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken while they were in the White House.

The other Justice Department case that Smith oversaw concerned Trump’s mishandling of classified documents after the end of his first term as president.

US Federal Judge Eileen Cannon blocked the Justice Department from sharing Smith’s findings on the documents issue on the grounds that their release would impact proceedings against the Trump aide and property manager.

Cannon, a Trump appointee who has already dismissed the documents case against the president-elect, scheduled a hearing for Friday on the Justice Department’s request to release the second volume of the report to leaders of select congressional committees.