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Special Counsel: Team Stood Up for Law 01/14 06:28
Special counsel Jack Smith said his team "stood up for the rule of law" as
it investigated President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results
of the 2020 election, writing in a much-anticipated report released Tuesday
that he stands fully behind his decision to bring criminal charges he believes
would have resulted in a conviction had voters not returned Trump to the White
House.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Special counsel Jack Smith said his team "stood up for
the rule of law" as it investigated President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to
overturn the results of the 2020 election, writing in a much-anticipated report
released Tuesday that he stands fully behind his decision to bring criminal
charges he believes would have resulted in a conviction had voters not returned
Trump to the White House.
"The throughline of all of Mr. Trump's criminal efforts was deceit --
knowingly false claims of election fraud -- and the evidence shows that Mr.
Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function
foundational to the United States' democratic process," the report states.
The report, arriving just days before Trump is to return to office on Jan.
20, focuses fresh attention on his frantic but failed effort to cling to power
in 2020. With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump's election victory,
the document is expected to be the final Justice Department chronicle of a dark
chapter in American history that threatened to disrupt the peaceful transfer of
power, a bedrock of democracy for centuries, and complements already released
indictments and reports.
Trump responded early Tuesday with a post on his Truth Social platform,
claiming he was "totally innocent" and calling Smith "a lamebrain prosecutor
who was unable to get his case tried before the Election." He added, "THE
VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!"
Trump had been indicted in August 2023 on charges of working to overturn the
election, but the case was delayed by appeals and ultimately significantly
narrowed by a conservative-majority Supreme Court that held for the first time
that former presidents enjoy sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for
official acts.
Though Smith sought to salvage the indictment, the team dismissed it
entirely in November because of longstanding Justice Department policy that
says sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.
"The Department's view that the Constitution prohibits the continued
indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on
the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government's proof, or
the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind," the
report states. "Indeed, but for Mr. Trump's election and imminent return to the
Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to
obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."
The Justice Department transmitted the report to Congress early Tuesday
after a judge refused a defense effort to block its release. A separate volume
of the report focused on Trump's hoarding of classified documents at
Mar-a-Lago, actions that formed the basis of a separate indictment against
Trump, will remain under wraps for now.
Though most of the details of Trump's efforts to undo the election are
already well established, the document includes for the first time a detailed
assessment from Smith about his investigation, as well as a defense by Smith
against criticism by Trump and his allies that the inquiry was politicized or
that he worked in collaboration with the White House -- an assessment he called
"laughable."
"While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe
the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters," Smith wrote in a
letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland attached to the report. "I believe
the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the
personal costs matters."
The special counsel also laid out the challenges it faced in its
investigation, including Trump's assertion of executive privilege to try to
block witnesses from providing evidence, which forced prosecutors into sealed
court battles before the case was charged.
Another "significant challenge" was Trump's "ability and willingness to use
his influence and following on social media to target witnesses, courts,
prosecutors," which led prosecutors to seek a gag order to protect potential
witnesses from harassment, Smith wrote.
"Mr. Trump's resort to intimidation and harassment during the investigation
was not new, as demonstrated by his actions during the charged conspiracies,"
Smith wrote.
"A fundamental component of Mr. Trump's conduct underlying the charges in
the Election Case was his pattern of using social media -- at the time, Twitter
-- to publicly attack and seek to influence state and federal officials,
judges, and election workers who refused to support false claims that the
election had been stolen or who otherwise resisted complicity in Mr. Trump's
scheme," he added.
Smith also for the first time explained the thought process behind his
team's prosecution decisions, writing that his office decided not to charge
Trump with incitement in part because of free speech concerns, or with
insurrection because he was the sitting president at the time and there was
doubt about proceeding to trial with the offense -- of which there was no
record of having been prosecuted before.
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