Donald Trump Would Be Convicted of Defrauding U.S. in 2020 Election if He Weren't President-Elect, DOJ Asserts

The outgoing attorney general just disclosed all of special counsel Jack Smith's findings surrounding Trump's attempts to hold onto power after losing the 2020 election

Jan 14, 2025 - 11:00
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Donald Trump Would Be Convicted of Defrauding U.S. in 2020 Election if He Weren't President-Elect, DOJ Asserts

The outgoing attorney general just disclosed all of special counsel Jack Smith's findings surrounding Trump's attempts to hold onto power after losing the 2020 election

Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty President Donald Trump at the White House in 2020
Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty President Donald Trump at the White House in 2020

The Justice Department's final report about the election subversion case against Donald Trump was released on Tuesday, Jan. 14, revealing new details about how the 45th president allegedly tried clinging to power after losing reelection in 2020.

The report — which was compiled by special counsel Jack Smith — claims that the Justice Department had enough evidence to convict Trump of election interference and would have moved forward with prosecuting him if he had not won the 2024 election.

“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," the report stated.

The more than 137-page report claimed that Trump "resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power" after he had lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. This included "attempts to induce state officials to ignore" vote counts and to "force" his vice president at the time, Mike Pence, and other justice department officials to "act in contravention of their oaths" and "advance" Trump's "personal interests."

Related: Donald Trump Said 2 Chilling Words on Jan. 6 When Aide Told Him Mike Pence Was in Danger: Newly Revealed Evidence

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Capitol police are overtaken by pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6, 2021
Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Capitol police are overtaken by pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6, 2021

The report also claimed that Trump worked with others to "overturn the election results and perpetuate himself in office" and even inspired his supporters to "commit acts of physical violence" on Jan. 6, 2021, in order "to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election and then leverage rioters' violence to further delay it."

In the report, Smith alleged that Trump perpetuated "false" claims that "dead, non-resident, non-citizen, or otherwise ineligible voters" had cast ballots against him and that voting machines changed people's votes against him, despite high ranking officials in his administration telling him directly "that there was no evidence to support his claims."

Related: Rudy Giuliani Now Admits He Made False Statements About Georgia Poll Workers After 2020 Election

Smith said that he stood "fully" behind his decision to prosecute Trump in the report, adding, “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.”

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Trump fired back after the release of the report on his social media platform Truth Social, writing, "Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide."

Related: Georgia Prosecutors Have Messages Linking Donald Trump’s Legal Team to a 2020 Election Breach: Report

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Former special counsel Jack Smith filed his final reports before resigning from the Justice Department on Friday, Jan. 10

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Former special counsel Jack Smith filed his final reports before resigning from the Justice Department on Friday, Jan. 10

As special counsel, Smith was tasked with overseeing exhaustive federal investigations into Trump, which resulted in two separate criminal cases. The first was related to Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results — including his actions leading up to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — and the second case addressed his handling of classified White House documents that were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.

Related: Every Crime Donald Trump Was Charged With, Explained

Trump was indicted in both cases in 2023, but a series of delay tactics prevented him from going on trial before the 2024 presidential election. After Trump was elected president in November, Smith dropped the cases against him entirely. He then resigned from the Justice Department on Friday, Jan. 10, to avoid being fired by Trump after Inauguration Day.

Though Trump ultimately evaded his federal criminal charges, outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland recently asserted that the public has a right to know what was in Smith's report about Trump.

In the name of transparency, Garland has been on a mission to release all special counsel reports that were filed during his tenure. He did make one exception, agreeing to withhold the details about Trump's classified documents investigation for now, since his co-defendants in that case are still facing trial.