US president-elect Donald Trump would have been convicted for his alleged effort to overturn the 2020 election result if he had not been elected four years later, said a report released yesterday by then-US special counsel Jack Smith.
The US Department of Justice’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 said. “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.”
Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday next week, had been accused of conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — the session of US Congress called to certify US President Joe Biden’s election win, which was violently attacked on Jan. 6, 2021, by a mob of the Republican’s supporters.
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Smith, who was special counsel appointed to investigate Trump, dropped the federal criminal case against the incoming leader after he won November last year’s presidential election.
Soon after the report’s overnight release, Trump hit back on social media, calling Smith “deranged,” and adding that he “was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss.’”
Trump’s attorneys had earlier urged US Attorney General Merrick Garland not to release the report, calling the plan to release it “unlawful, undertaken in bad faith, and contrary to the public interest.”
Smith’s report details Trump’s alleged efforts to persuade state-level Republican lawmakers and leaders to “change the results” of the 2020 election.
“Mr Trump contacted state legislators and executives, pressured them with false claims of election fraud in their states, and urged them to take action to ignore the vote counts and change the results,” the report said. “Significantly, he made election claims only to state legislators and executives who shared his political affiliation and were his political supporters, and only in states that he had lost.”
In addition, the report alleges that Trump and co-conspirators planned to organize individuals who would have served as his electors, if he had won the popular vote, in seven states where he lost — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — “and cause them to sign and send to Washington false certifications claiming to be the legitimate electors.”
They ultimately “used the fraudulent certificates to try to obstruct the congressional certification proceeding,” the report said.
The special counsel office concluded that “Trump’s conduct violated several federal criminal statutes and that the admissible evidence would be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction.”
Smith left the justice department last week, days after submitting his final report as special counsel.
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