Washington In a report justifying his probe released early Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith claimed that President-elect Donald Trump “inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence” on January 6 and purposefully disseminated an objectively false narrative on election fraud in the 2020 election.
Smith’s research into Trump’s attempts to stay in power following his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election—which resulted in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6—was summed up in the 170-page report. Over 250 people were interviewed by Smith’s office as part of the inquiry, and over 55 witnesses testified before federal grand jurors.
Trump has been criticizing Smith nonstop, and his supporters have said that the special counsel should now be charged with a crime. Trump used the report to make a forceful justification of his decision to file charges.
“To all who know me well, 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,” Smith wrote in a letter.
He said that the case would have resulted in the conviction of the president-elect if not for Trump’s election in November, which stopped the prosecution from proceeding.
In fact, the Office determined that the admissible evidence was adequate to secure and uphold a conviction at trial, if not for Mr. Trump’s election and impending return to the presidency,” Smith’s report said.
On his website Truth Social, Trump attacked the article, pointing out that it was published at one in the morning and restating untrue statements regarding the House committee that looked into the matter on January 6.
“Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election,” said Trump.
The report concludes a period of American history in which a former president was initially charged with federal crimes, went on to win reelection, and would soon take office again. Trump battled to keep the report confidential, but his last-minute attempts to stop its publication were denied.
According to Smith’s report, the investigation was made more difficult by Trump’s political and financial standing as well as the possibility that he would be elected president in the future. Trump’s actions, which disrupted America’s history of peaceful power transfers, were without historical comparison.
According to the report, Trump’s willingness and ability to target witnesses, courts, and Department employees with his social media following and influence posed a serious challenge to the office, forcing the special counsel to take part in drawn-out legal proceedings to shield witnesses from harassment and threats.
He cited Trump’s ongoing admiration for the Jan. 6 rioters as another proof that the president-elect planned to provoke the assault.
“He has called them patriots and hostages, reminisced about January 6 as a beautiful day, and championed the January 6 Choir, a group of January 6 defendants who, because of their dangerousness, are detained at the District of Columbia jail,” wrote Smith.
Trump disseminated “demonstrably and, in many cases, obviously false” claims about voter fraud, according to the report, and Smith’s office concluded that “Trump knew that there was no outcome-determinative fraud in the 2020 election, that many of the specific claims that he made were untrue, and that he had lost the election.”
Smith cited Trump’s private admission of defeat in testimony, such as when he told an assistant, “Can you believe I lost to this fing guy?
Smith, who resigned on Friday, also authored a second volume that concentrated on distinct accusations made against Trump for his handling of secret documents. However, because two of Trump’s co-defendants are still facing charges, that portion of the report was not made public.
According to Smith’s assessment, prosecutors could have demonstrated that Trump made up his mind prior to the election to accuse someone of fraud, whether or not it happened, and that he “adhered to that plan repeating false claims that he knew to be untrue” after losing.
Trump denied any misconduct in relation to the attempt to rig the 2020 election, despite being separately convicted of 34 felonies related to hush money payments to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign. In connection with January 6 and the events preceding up to it, a federal grand jury indicted Trump on four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to impede an official process, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. Following Trump’s victory in November, the charges were dismissed in accordance with a long-standing Justice Department principle that prohibits prosecution of a sitting president.
According to Smith’s report, his agency also thought about charging Trump under the Insurrection Act, but decided it would be hard to prove because of the ambiguous legal definitions of insurrection and whether or not inciting had taken place.
Smith also gave scant information regarding the six co-conspirators who were listed in the initial indictment but were never charged. He stated that the report should not be interpreted as absolving them, although he did not name them. However, he said that the special counsel notified a U.S. attorney’s office to the possibility that “an investigative subject may have committed unrelated crimes” while still looking into co-conspirators.
Trump has never acknowledged in public that he was aware that he lost the 2020 election, but a federal grand jury found that the inaccurate information he disseminated was “unsupported, objectively unreasonable, and ever-changing.”
Trump’s legal team’s delay tactic ultimately resulted in a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that will give him more discretion when he takes office again and allowed him to escape trial before American voters elected him again last year.
As Trump claims he is getting ready to pardon an unknown number of defendants from January 6, the report was made public. More than 1,270 individuals have been found guilty on crimes ranging from seditious conspiracy to unauthorized parading, and over 1,580 defendants have been accused. Over 700 offenders have either served out their sentences already or were never given a jail sentence in the first place. Trump would not rule out pardoning protesters who attacked police officers when asked about the possibility.
Among those requesting pardons is Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 2023 and given the longest sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant—22 years in federal prison. Over the weekend, Vice President-elect JD Vances stated that it is “obviously” not appropriate to pardon violent offenders. According to the mother of a rioter who was shot and killed during the attack on January 6, Trump called her last week and instructed the defendants to “keep their chins up.”