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Donald Trump was facing “sufficient” evidence to stand trial for trying to sway the 2020 US presidential election, according to the special counsel leading the case against the president-elect.
Jack Smith was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to oversee the cases against Trump. He brought two sets of charges against the former president, one of which accused Trump of meddling in the 2020 polls.
But Smith ultimately moved to dismiss both proceedings after Trump’s 2024 election victory based on a longstanding Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of sitting presidents.
That view “is categorical and has no bearing on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s evidence or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office fully stands behind,” Smith wrote in a final report on the case released earlier. on Tuesday.
“Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the (special counsel’s) Office determined that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and support a conviction at trial,” Smith added.
The report comes as a blow to Trump, less than a week before he is sworn in.
Trump, who has denied wrongdoing, in a post on his Truth Social platform called Smith a “crazy prosecutor who was unable to try his case before the election, which I won by a landslide.”
The report ends one of two cases related to Smith’s investigation as a special prosecutor. The other case relates to the misuse of classified documents by Trump after the end of his first term as president.
Smith last week resigned from the justice department. The landmark case sparked a bitter legal battle with the president-elect ahead of the 2024 election.
