CNN
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Attorney General Merrick Garland has publicly released special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, detailing the president-elect’s “criminal efforts to retain power” and projecting confidence in the investigation.
The more than 130-page report, which was submitted to Congress and released early Tuesday after a court hold blocking its release expired at midnight, spells out in extensive — if largely already known — detail how Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. Smith’s team states in no uncertain terms that they believed Trump criminally attempted to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election results.
“As set forth in the original and superseding indictments, when it became clear that Mr. Trump had lost the election and that lawful means of challenging the election results had failed, he resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power,” the report states.
The transmission of Smith’s January 6 findings came after the president-elect and his allies were unable to stop the department from releasing it. Their court maneuverings did, however, slow its release as the clock ticks toward the January 20 inauguration, as well as upend the department’s plans to release volume two of the report, which covers the classified documents investigation. The attorney general has decided not to publicly release the second volume of the report related to the classified documents investigation after the special counsel recommended against its publication.
Tuesday’s release marks the special counsel’s final official word on his investigation into January 6, 2021, and the actions by Trump and his associates before then to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.
The report contains a factual recitation of Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, including his “pressure on state officials,” the “fraudulent electors plan,” his “pressure on the Vice President” Mike Pence, and a section on how Trump’s supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6. It essentially mirrors the landmark federal election subversion indictment that Smith brought against Trump in 2023, retooled in 2024 after the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, and ultimately withdrew after Trump’s victory in the November election.
“Until Mr. Trump obstructed it, this democratic process had operated in a peaceful and orderly manner for more than 130 years,” Smith wrote, referring to Congress’ certification of the Electoral College results, under the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
When it came to his duty as special counsel and the work of investigating and prosecuting Trump, Smith wrote that his “office had one north star, to follow the facts and law wherever they led. Nothing more and nothing less.”
Of the failed prosecution of Trump, Smith said that prosecutors “cannot control outcomes” and can only do their jobs “the right way for the right reasons.”
The final decision to prosecute Trump, he said, was his alone. “It is a decision I stand behind fully,” Smith wrote. “To have done otherwise on the facts developed during our work would have been to shirk my duties as a prosecutor and a public servant.”
Smith concluded that while the Justice Department interprets the Constitution as not allowing the prosecution of a sitting president, his office “assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”
Smith brought four charges against Trump in the 2020 election probe. But the case suffered setbacks culminating in the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling last summer that set a very high bar for prosecuting a former president for his conduct in office. The special counsel dropped the case against Trump altogether after voters in November decided to return him to the White House.
In a private letter to Garland on January 7, made public as part of the report, Smith condemned Trump’s claim of complete exoneration as false and said his office “stands fully behind” the merits of the criminal cases that he filed.
Smith had been responding to a prior letter from Trump’s lawyers, in which they claimed he was fully exonerated because Smith withdrew both criminal cases after the election.
“Mr. Trump’s letter claims that dismissal of his criminal cases signifies Mr. Trump’s ‘complete exoneration.’ That is false,” Smith wrote in the letter.
Smith continued: “The (Justice) Department’s view that the Constitution prohibits Mr. Trump’s indictment and prosecution while he is in office 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 — all of which the Office stands fully behind.”
-The special counsel’s office had continued to investigate the unindicted co-conspirators after charging Trump, Smith said in his report.
The office found evidence that one subject of the investigation, who was not named, may have committed unrelated crimes, and that investigation was referred to a US attorney’s office, the report said.
In the federal election probe, the special counsel ultimately did not bring additional indictments, even as the prosecutors had made a “preliminary determination” that charges against “certain” co-conspirators could be justified.
“This Report should not be read to allege that any particular person other than Mr. Trump committed a crime, nor should it be read to exonerate any particular person,” the report said.
Before dropping the case against Trump, the office had begun a discussion over whether potential charges against additional co-conspirators would be brought in Trump’s case or in a separate case.
“Because the Office reached no final conclusions and did not seek indictments against anyone other than Mr. Trump – the head of the criminal conspiracies and their intended beneficiary – this Report does not elaborate further on the investigation and preliminary assessment of uncharged individuals,” Smith said.
Trump’s lawyers pushed ‘false’ and ‘unfounded’ claims to attack probe, Smith says
An appendix of the report contains a series of previously undisclosed, combative letters sent by Smith’s team and Trump’s lawyers as they wrangled in recent days over the public release of the report.
Trump’s lawyers sent a letter to Garland on January 6, demanding that Smith “terminate all efforts towards the preparation and release of” his report.
They claimed that Smith was trying to “perpetuate false and discredited accusations” against Trump by releasing the report, and they called him an “out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor,” citing US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unlawful.
Smith penned his own letter to Garland on January 7, rebutting the Trump letter. Smith’s response accuses Trump’s lawyers, including his nominee for deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, of making a “variety of false, misleading, or otherwise unfounded claims.”
The social counsel also pointed out that Trump’s letter “fails to identify any specific factual objections to the draft” report that they reviewed in the past several weeks, ahead of its public release.
“Mr. Trump recycles his baseless allegation that the Office’s work constituted a partisan attack, a claim flatly rejected by the only court to have ruled on it,” Smith wrote in the letter to Garland, referring to an August 2024 ruling from Judge Tanya Chutkan in the election subversion case.
A hearing on volume two of Smith’s report is set for later this week.
Garland does not intend to release that portion of the report publicly, but he had planned to allow a very small group of lawmakers to view it behind closed doors. Cannon, however, extended an order that prevents him from sharing that volume to anyone outside of the department.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
