By Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. special counsel Jack Smith concluded that Donald Trump engaged in an “unprecedented criminal attempt” to seize power after losing the 2020 election, but was prevented from bringing the case by the president-elect's victory in November. , according to a statement published on Tuesday.
The report details Smith's decision to bring four counts of indictment against Trump, accusing him of conspiring to block the collection and verification of votes following his 2020 defeat by Democratic President Joe Biden.
It concludes that the evidence will be enough to convict Trump in the case, but his return to the presidency soon, scheduled for January 20, makes it impossible.
Smith, who has faced constant criticism from Trump, also defended his investigation and the prosecutors working on it.
“The claim from Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or controlled by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, ludicrous,” Smith said in a letter explaining his statement.
After the release, Trump, in a post on his Social Truth site, called Smith “a lamebrain prosecutor who couldn't get his case before the election.”
Trump's lawyers, in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland made public by the Justice Department, called the report a “politically motivated attack” and said releasing it before Trump's return to the White House would hurt the presidential transition.
Much of the evidence cited in the report has previously been made public.
But it includes new details, such as whether prosecutors are considering charging Trump with inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol under the US law known as the Impeachment Act.
Prosecutors ultimately concluded that the charge posed legal risks and there was insufficient evidence that Trump intended the “full range” of violence during the riots, a failed attempt by a mob of his supporters to stop Congress from ratifying the 2020 election.
The indictment accuses Trump of conspiring to block voter certification, defraud the United States of accurate election results and deny American voters their right to vote.
Smith's office has concluded that charges may be warranted against others accused of helping Trump craft the plan, but the report said prosecutors have not reached a conclusion.
Several of Trump's former lawyers have been identified as co-conspirators in the indictment.
The second part of the report describes Smith's lawsuit that accuses Trump of illegally keeping national security documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
The Justice Department has pledged not to make that part public while legal proceedings continue against two of Trump's associates accused in the case.
Smith, who left the Justice Department last week, dropped both cases against Trump after he won last year's election, citing the Justice Department's policy against prosecuting a sitting president. We never got into debt.
Trump has denied all charges. Often slamming Smith as “wrong,” Trump described the charges as a political effort to damage his campaign and politics.
Trump and two former associates in the classified documents case sought to block the release of the report, days before Trump returned to office on January 20. The courts rejected their demands to prevent its publication entirely.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the documents case, has ordered the Justice Department to temporarily halt plans to allow certain senior members of Congress to privately inspect a section of the report's documents.
Prosecutors have provided a clear outline of their case against Trump in earlier court filings. The 2022 Congressional panel published its 700-page report on Trump's actions after the 2020 election.
Another investigation concluded that Trump spread false claims of widespread voter fraud after the 2020 election and pressured lawmakers not to certify the vote, and finally, he sought to use fraudulent groups of voters who promised to vote for Trump, in states won by Biden, in an effort to stop Congress from confirming Biden's victory.
The effort culminated in Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters attacked Congress in an attempt to prevent lawmakers from confirming the vote.
Smith's case faced legal hurdles even before Trump won the election. It was put on hold for months while Trump pressed his claim that he could not be prosecuted for legal actions taken as president.
A majority of the Supreme Court sided with him, giving former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution.