In a 137-page final report on the results of his historic prosecution of the former and future president, Smith laid out the evidence amassed against the 78-year-old Trump.
“But for Mr Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the (Special Counsel’s) Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” he said.
Smith, who was appointed by Attorney-General Merrick Garland, brought two federal cases against Trump – for seeking to overturn the results of the election he lost to Joe Biden and mishandling top government secret documents after leaving the White House.
Neither case came to trial and Smith dropped the charges in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
This new stinging rebuke from Smith means Trump will have something of a cloud hanging over him as he takes the oath of office Monday at the Capitol, ground zero of the insurrection he inspired after losing the 2020 election.
However, it falls far short of the punishment which Trump critics had hoped for from at least one of four indictments against him.
In the end, after years of legal wrangling that Trump survived first by delaying tactics and ultimately by winning re-election, this is about all Trump critics can point to as justice – the special prosecutor’s assertion that, had Trump gone to trial in the election subversion case, he would have been found guilty.
Specifically, Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding – the session of Congress held to certify Biden’s win that was violently attacked on January 6, 2021 by a mob of Trump supporters.
In his report, Smith accused Trump of using “fraud and deceit” to overturn the election results.
“When it became clear that Mr Trump had lost the election and that lawful means of challenging the election results had failed, he resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power,” the special counsel said.
“This included attempts to induce state officials to ignore true vote counts (and) to manufacture fraudulent slates of presidential electors in seven states that he had lost,” Smith said. “Trump engaged in these efforts even though trusted state and party officials had told him from the outset that there was no evidence of fraud in the election.”
Trump unsuccessfully pressured vice-president Mike Pence not to certify the election results, Smith said, and on January 6 he directed “an angry mob to the United States Capitol”.
Trump’s untruths included dozens of demonstrably false claims that large numbers of ineligible voters, such as non-citizens, had cast ballots, and that voting machines had changed votes, the special counsel said.
Trump lashed out at Smith following the release of the report, calling him “deranged” and claiming his prosecution was politically motivated.
“Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide. THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!” Trump said.
Smith flatly rejected the allegations of political bias in a letter to Garland that accompanied his final report.
“The claim from Mr Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable,” he said.
Trump’s lawyers tried but failed to block the report’s release, calling it “undertaken in bad faith, and contrary to the public interest”.
Smith has also prepared a report into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents but it is being withheld because charges are pending against two of his former co-defendants.
Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor in the Hague, resigned from the Justice Department last week after submitting his final reports.
Trump’s lawyers, in a letter to Attorney-General Garland made public by the Justice Department, called the report a “politically-motivated attack” and said releasing it ahead of Trump’s return to the White House would harm the presidential transition.
Much of the evidence cited in the report has been previously made public.
However, it includes some new details, such as that prosecutors considered charging Trump with inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol under a US law known as the Insurrection Act.
Prosecutors ultimately concluded that such a charge posed legal risks and there was insufficient evidence that Trump intended for the “full scope” of violence during the riot.
Trump faces separate racketeering charges in Georgia over his efforts to subvert the election results in the southern state but the case will likely be frozen while he is in office.
Trump was convicted in New York in May of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to an adult entertainment actor.
The judge who presided over the case gave him an “unconditional discharge” last week which carries no jail time, fine or probation.
Smith’s case faced legal hurdles even before Trump’s election win.
It was paused for months while Trump pressed his claim that he could not be prosecuted for official actions taken as president.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority largely sided with him, granting former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
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