President-elect Donald Trump engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat, according to a report by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Mr Smith said Trump “inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence” in the January 6 riots and knowingly spread a false narrative about fraud in the 2020 election.
However efforts to bring Trump to trial over his attempt to hold onto power were thwarted by his re-election in November, the special prosecutor said in his report, which was released by the Department of Justice on Tuesday.
He also found charges could be justified against Trump’s co-conspirators but reached no final conclusions.
Mr Smith resigned in the wake of Trump’s election victory in November.
“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,” Mr Smith’s report said.
The release of the report comes a few days after Trump was sentenced following his conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
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President-elect Trump has consistently criticised Mr Smith and allies have suggested the special counsel should now face criminal charges for pursuing the case against him.
In the wake of the release of the report, Trump called Mr Smith “deranged” and criticised the report’s “fake findings”.
The special prosecutor defended his investigation, saying: “The claim from Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor
were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.”
Mr Smith’s case had faced legal hurdles even before it was clear that Trump would be returning to the White House.
It was paused for months as the former president pursued a legal claim that he could not be prosecuted for official actions taken during his time as commander-in-chief.
The Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, largely agreed with him, granting former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
