DoJ report says Donald Trump would have been convicted in 2020

Donald Trump would have been convicted of illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 US election had he not been re-elected, according to special counsel Jack Smith’s partially released report.

The evidence against Trump was “sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” Smith wrote. Trump has already hit back on his Truth Social platform to say the results were “fake” and criticize the process.

“However, for Mr. Trump’s election (in 2024) and impending return to the presidency, the office determined that the evidence admitted was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” said the Department of Justice (DoJ) report, which went into detail about the case. As to why the case was closed, the report noted that the US Constitution prohibits the prosecution of a sitting president.

In a letter accompanying the release sent to the attorney general, the BBC reported that Smith rejected any suggestion that the case was politically motivated: “The allegation by Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by (President Joe) The Biden administration, or any other political actors, is a laughing stock,” the letter said.

Smith’s report said the Jan. 6 uprising showed that the former and soon-to-be POTUS had used “unprecedented efforts to illegally maintain power.”

The report focused on a number of challenges facing investigators. It was sent to Congress last night after a period of legal wrangling.

Trump was accused of pressuring officials to overturn the 2020 results by deliberately spreading lies about election fraud and for his part in the riot on January 6, 2021. That riot saw a mob of Trump supporters attack the Capitol Building in Washington two months later Trump’s 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.