Trump would have been convicted if not reelected: Ex-US special counsel

The US Justice Department’s Special Counsel Jack Smith, who resigned recently, says Donald Trump would have been convicted if he were not reelected president.

A report Smith submitted before his resignation to the Department of Justice last week and published on Tuesday concluded that Trump’s conviction would have been in connection with his “unprecedented criminal effort” to overturn the 2020 election result.

The report details how Smith planned to bring a 4-count indictment against Trump, accusing him of plotting to obstruct the collection and certification of votes following his 2020 defeat.

Trump, according to the document, spread false claims of voter fraud following the 2020 election and pressured state lawmakers not to certify the vote. Trump also sought to use fraudulent groups of electors who pledged to vote for him – in states actually won by Joe Biden – in a bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden's win.

Trump’s criminal efforts culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. On that day, a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress in a failed attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote.

The Smith report underscores that evidence would have been enough to convict Trump but his imminent return to the presidency made that impossible.

A separate volume of the Smith report details Trump's illegal retaining of top secret documents at his home after leaving the White House in 2021.

But the Justice Department has decided not to make that portion public while legal proceedings continue against two Trump associates charged in the case.

Trump and his two former co-defendants in the classified documents case sought to block the release of the report days before he is set to return to office – on January 20.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which include conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion among others. He says the 37 counts of criminal cases are politically motivated.

Special Trump prosecutor resigns from US Justice Department

US Justice Department’s Special Counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw criminal investigations of Donald Trump, resigns from the DOJ.

Smith dropped both cases against Trump after he won the 2024 election, citing a longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

During the Trump investigations, led by Smith, which started in November 2022, the Special Counsel was subjected to numerous attacks by Trump.

Trump regularly assailed the Special Counsel as “deranged.”

After the release of Smith's report, Trump in a post on his Truth Social site labeled the Special Counsel a “lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the election.”

Even before Trump's reelection, Smith's case faced legal barriers as it was paused for months while Trump pressed his claim that he could not be prosecuted for official actions taken during his time in office as president.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority largely sided with Trump.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir