A new report reveals that Trump’s actions during the 2020 election could have led to a conviction for his unprecedented efforts to overturn the results.
Washington: So, there’s this big report from special counsel Jack Smith about Donald Trump and the 2020 election. It says Trump would’ve been convicted for trying to overturn the election results. Smith’s team really believed in standing up for the law during their investigation.
The report talks about how Trump spread false claims of election fraud. It claims he used these lies to mess with a key part of our democracy. This report comes just before Trump’s return to office on January 20, and it shines a light on his frantic attempts to hold onto power after losing to Joe Biden.
Even though Trump won the 2024 election, this report is likely the last word from the Justice Department on this troubling chapter in American history. It highlights how close we came to a serious disruption in the peaceful transfer of power, which is a big deal in democracy.
Trump didn’t take this lying down. He posted on Truth Social, saying he’s “totally innocent” and called Smith a “lamebrain prosecutor.” He insists the voters have made their choice.
Back in August 2023, Trump was indicted for trying to overturn the election, but the case got tangled up in appeals. The Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have a lot of immunity from criminal charges for official actions. This left some legal questions hanging, which might have needed another Supreme Court visit to sort out.
Smith’s team tried to keep the indictment alive but eventually had to drop it because of a long-standing policy that says sitting presidents can’t be prosecuted. The report makes it clear that the Constitution blocks the indictment of a president, no matter how serious the charges are.
Smith’s report was sent to Congress after a judge said it could be released. There’s also a part of the report about Trump keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, but that’s not out yet.
The report doesn’t hold back on detailing Trump’s attempts to overturn the election. It calls his actions an “unprecedented criminal effort” to stay in power. It talks about how he tried to pressure the Justice Department to help him and even tried to get fake electors in states he lost.
It also covers his fallout with Mike Pence, who refused to go along with Trump’s demands to not certify the electoral count. Just before Trump spoke at the Ellipse on January 6, he called Pence, and when Pence said he couldn’t do what Trump wanted, Trump got angry.
While many details about Trump’s actions are already known, this report gives a fresh look at Smith’s investigation and defends it against claims that it was politically motivated. Smith called those claims “laughable.”
He emphasized that even though they couldn’t take the cases to trial, standing up for the law was important. He also shared the challenges they faced, like Trump trying to block witnesses and using social media to intimidate people involved in the investigation.
Smith pointed out that Trump’s pattern of using social media to attack officials who wouldn’t support his false claims was a big part of the case. He also explained why they didn’t charge Trump with incitement or insurrection, mainly due to free speech concerns and the unique situation of him being president at the time.
