The Justice Department released Volume I of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report regarding his investigations into President-elect Donald Trump just days before he is set to take office.
Attorney General Merrick Garland made the first volume public, which centers on the election case against Trump, after a series of discussions in the federal court system, at midnight on Tuesday.
In an introductory letter from Smith to Garland, he described it as “laughable” that Trump thinks the Biden administration or other political figures influenced his decisions as a prosecutor, emphasizing that he followed the Principles of Federal Prosecution.
Jack Smith, GettyImage
Smith noted, “Trump’s cases represented ones ‘in which the offense [was] the most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof the most certain,’” referring to those principles.
In the detailed report, Smith asserted that his office fully supports the decision to file criminal charges against Trump, stating he “resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power” after losing the 2020 election.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, AP Photo
Smith concluded that discussions were ongoing regarding whether any material in the “superseding indictment was subject to presidential immunity” when it became evident that Trump had won the 2024 election. The department decided the case should be dismissed before he takes office based on its interpretation of the Constitution.
The report emphasized that “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.”
In a post early Tuesday on Truth Social, Trump labeled Smith as “desperate” and “deranged” for releasing his “fake findings” in the early hours.
This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. (Department of Justice via AP)
Smith was responsible for overseeing the investigation into whether Trump or other officials interfered with the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election, particularly regarding the certification of the Electoral College vote on January 6, 2021.
He charged Trump in both cases, but Trump entered a plea of not guilty.
In July 2024, the classified records case was dismissed by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that Smith had been unlawfully appointed as special counsel.
Smith charged Trump in the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C. regarding his 2020 election case, but after Trump was elected president, Smith sought to have the case dismissed, which Judge Tanya Chutkan granted.
However, this month, Cannon temporarily blocked the release of Smith’s final report. A federal appeals court later reversed her ruling, permitting the Justice Department to make Smith’s report public.
In the classified records probe, Smith charged Trump with 37 federal counts including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. Trump pleaded not guilty.
FOX News
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