Donald Trump ‘would have been convicted’ over 2020 election had he not won in 2024 – US politics live

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Smith, who left the jjustice department last week, dropped both cases against Trump after he won last year’s election, citing a longstanding department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. Neither reached a trial.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Regularly assailing Smith as “deranged,” Trump depicted the cases as politically motivated attempts to damage his campaign and political movement.

Trump and his two former co-defendants in the classified documents case sought to block the release of the report, days before Trump is set to return to office on 20 January. Courts rebuffed their demands to prevent its publication altogether.

Jack Smith asserts that he believed the evidence was sufficient to convict Trump in a trial if his success in the 2024 election had not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue.

Smith wrote:

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.

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.

Volume two of the report, dealing with Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, is under seal due to ongoing legal proceedings against Trump’s co-defendants. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to determine whether it will be released to Congress or kept under seal.

Trump and his legal team have characterised the report as a “political hit job” aimed at disrupting the presidential transition.

Trump 'would have been convicted' over 2020 election - special counsel

Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 if he had not won the presidential election in 2024, according to the special counsel who investigated him.

Jack Smith’s report detailing his team’s findings about Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy was released by the justice department early on Tuesday.

Following the insurrection on 6 January, 2021, Smith was appointed as special counsel to investigate Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. His investigation culminated in a detailed report, submitted to the attorney general, Merrick Garland.

Volume one of the report meticulously outlines Trump’s actions, including his efforts to pressure state officials, assemble alternate electors and encourage supporters to protest against the election results.

Here is the first take from our Washington DC bureau chief, David Smith.

Congress receives Jack Smith report on Trump investigation

The former US justice department special counsel Jack Smith has said his team “stood up for the rule of law” as it investigated Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election – writing in a much-anticipated report released on Tuesday that he stands fully behind his decision to bring criminal charges against the president-elect.

The report, which comes just days before Trump’s return to the White House on 20 January, focuses fresh attention on his frantic but failed effort to cling to power in 2020. With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump’s election victory, the document is expected to be the final justice department chronicle of a dark chapter in American history that threatened to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, a bedrock of democracy for centuries.

The justice department transmitted the report to Congress early on Tuesday after a judge refused to block its release.

Though most of the details of Trump’s efforts to undo the election are already well established, the document includes for the first time a detailed assessment from Smith about his investigation, as well as a defence by Smith against criticism by Trump and his allies that the investigation was politicised.

“While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters,” Smith wrote in a letter to the attorney general, Merrick Garland, attached to the report. “I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters.”