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.