Trump would have been convicted had he not been elected, says Jack Smith

Much of the final report of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and keep himself in power has finally been made public.

The report on federal charges against Trump for election interference in 2020 offers special counsel Jack Smith a last chance to explain his decisions after dropping the case.

— NPR (@npr.org) 2025-01-14T11:50:43.942Z

In it, Jack Smith states that it is clear, in his opinion, that Trump would have been found guilty in view of the overwhelming evidence gathered in the case.

The federal charges against Trump were dropped when he won the presidential election. However, a final report, which Trump tried until the end to keep confidential, has finally been published.

According to Smith, the evidence gathered against Trump was sufficient to convict him.

Jack Smith points out that the only reason protecting Trump from certain conviction is the Justice Department’s long-standing policy against prosecuting a sitting president, which forced it to drop its case against him.

Recall that Smith has faced relentless forwards from Trump and his allies, but he claims to have remained impartial in his work. In his view, to act otherwise given the facts gathered in this case would have been a dereliction of his duties as a prosecutor and public servant.

After nearly 30 years of public service, he says it was a decision he could not accept.

The report also explains why Trump was not charged with inciting an insurrection on the now infamous day of January 6, 2021.

Investigators in the case were unable to prove that he participated in the offense, nor could they establish direct evidence that Trump intended to provoke the scale of violence that occurred that day.

Jack Smith’s final report was submitted to the Justice Department on January 7, and that Smith resigned on January 10, a few days before Donald Trump officially took office in the White House.