Special Counsel Jack Smith spoke to reporters in his office in Washington about the 37 federal indictments returned by the grand jury that indicted former President Donald Trump on charges of misrepresentation of classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Announced. USA June 9, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The U.S. Department of Justice released Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Tuesday. donald trump’s It was an attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the final act of prosecutors whose historic criminal case was blocked by Trump’s victory in November’s election.
The report calls for four counts of indictment against Trump, accusing the Republican president-elect of plotting to interfere with vote collection and certification after his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020. He is expected to elaborate on his decision.
The second section of the report details Smith’s lawsuit accusing President Trump of illegally retaining classified national security documents after he left the White House in 2021. The Justice Department has promised not to make that part public while legal proceedings against two Trump associates charged in the case continue.
Smith, who resigned from the Justice Department last week, dropped both cases against Trump after Trump won last year’s election, citing the department’s longstanding policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Neither case went to trial.
Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Trump, who has regularly attacked Smith as “crazy,” described the incident as a politically motivated attempt to damage his campaign and political movement.
President Trump and two former co-defendants in the classified documents case sought to block the release of the report just days before Trump returned to office on January 20, but the court completely blocked the release of the report. refused the request.
U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon, who presided over the documents case, ordered the Justice Department to halt for now its plans to allow certain senior members of Congress to privately view document sections of the report.
It is unclear how much new information will be included in the public portion of the report.
Prosecutors have detailed their case against Trump in previous court filings. A 2022 Congressional committee released its own 700-page report on President Trump’s actions after the 2020 election.
Both investigations show that Trump spread false claims of widespread voter fraud after the 2020 election, pressured state legislators not to certify votes, and ultimately accused Trump of spreading false claims about widespread voter fraud in states that Biden actually won. It concluded that he had tried to take advantage of a fraudulent group of voters who had pledged to vote for him. This is to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
This effort culminated with the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. At the time, a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress in an unsuccessful attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote.
Mr. Smith’s lawsuit faced legal hurdles even before Mr. Trump’s election victory. The case was suspended for several months while Trump asserted his claim that he would not be prosecuted for official actions as president.
The conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court largely sided with him, granting the former president broad immunity from criminal prosecution.