During a late-night outburst on Truth Social, Donald Trump heavily criticized special counsel Jack Smith, whom he called ‘lamebrained’. This came after the Department of Justice released the prosecutor’s impactful report in the wee hours of the morning.
Despite facing backlash, Smith confidently defended his choice to press charges against Trump in the long-awaited report. He strongly believed that if Trump had not become president, he would have been found guilty of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.
Accompanying the report was a harshly worded statement from Smith, chastising Trump for what he viewed as a multitude of lies and deceptive actions aimed at undermining the American system.
‘The throughline of all of Mr. Trump’s criminal efforts was deceit – knowingly false claims of election fraud – and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States’ democratic process,’ the report states.
The comprehensive report, coming just days before Trump is to return to the White House on January 20, focuses fresh attention on his extensive but failed effort to cling to power in 2020.
Trump has already hit back at the report in a Truth Social post at around 1:41am.
‘Deranged Jack Smith was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss,’ Crooked Joe Biden, so he ends up writing yet another ‘Report’ based on information that the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs ILLEGALLY DESTROYED AND DELETED, because it showed how totally innocent I was, and how completely guilty Nancy Pelosi, and others, were,’ the post read.
The president-elect then followed it up with two more missives to his social media platform.
‘To show you how desperate Deranged Jack Smith is, he released his Fake findings at 1:00 A.M. in the morning. Did he say that the Unselect Committee illegally destroyed and deleted all of the evidence.’
He followed it up with his trademark: ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’
Donald Trump raged against special counsel Jack Smith’s report in a late night rant to Truth Social shortly after it was released
Trump has already hit back at the report in multiple Truth Social posts
With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump’s election victory, the 137-page document is expected to be the final Justice Department chronicle of the probes.
Smith, who resigned on Sunday after completing two criminal investigations, wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland that he believed had Trump stood trial on the charges, he would have been convicted.
‘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,’ Smith wrote.
‘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,’ he added.
Trump called Smith ‘a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide. THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!’
Smith wrote the report, which was transmitted to Congress early Tuesday after a judge refused to block its release. It describes prosecutors’ charging decisions in the case that resulted in Trump being indicted for taking a trove of national security documents to Mar-a-Lago.
They also include the decision to charge Trump with heading a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
The document includes, for the first time, a detailed assessment from Smith about his investigation, as well as a defense by Smith against criticism by Trump and his allies that the investigation was politicized.
Though Smith sought to salvage the indictment, the team dismissed it entirely in November because of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.
‘While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters,’ Smith continued.
‘I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters.’
Another ‘significant challenge’ was Trump’s ‘ability and willingness to use his influence and following on social media to target witnesses, courts, prosecutors,’ which led prosecutors to seek a gag order to protect potential witnesses from harassment, Smith wrote.
‘Mr. Trump’s resort to intimidation and harassment during the investigation was not new, as demonstrated by his actions during the charged conspiracies,’ Smith wrote.
‘A fundamental component of Mr. Trump’s conduct underlying the charges in the Election Case was his pattern of using social media – at the time, Twitter – to publicly attack and seek to influence state and federal officials, judges, and election workers who refused to support false claims that the election had been stolen or who otherwise resisted complicity in Mr. Trump’s scheme,’ he added.
Smith also for the first time explained the thought process behind his team’s prosecution decisions, writing that his office decided not to charge Trump with incitement in part because of free speech concerns, or with insurrection because he was the sitting president at the time and there was doubt about proceeding to trial with the offense – of which there was no record of having been prosecuted before.
The special counsel brought a superseding indictment in the January 6th case that narrowed the case after the Supreme Court issued issued its summer decision giving presidents presidential immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office.
With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump’s election victory, the 137-page document is expected to be the final Justice Department chronicle of the probes
He wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland that he believed had Trump stood trial on the charges, he would have been convicted
Trump was charged with willful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, in a case Cannon dismissed this summer that was on appeal when Trump won the November election.
Trump’s team previously argued that the report, under DOJ regulations, merely spews ‘conspiracy theories,’ and say it is unfair to release it, saying it violates his presumption of innocence. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to attack Smith publicly.
The DOJ said the volume on the classified documents case would be provided to key members of Congress for both parties for private review in redacted form.
‘This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendant´s interests,’ DOJ wrote.
Once Trump takes office January 20th, his own Justice Department will get to make determinations on whether the report on the classified documents case ever gets released. Trump has repeatedly called the prosecutions against him ‘witch hunts.’
He has nominated loyalist former Florida AG Pam Bondi to lead the agency.
Both of Trump’s codefendants in the case, longtime valet Waltine Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager, have been in his longtime employ. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges against them.
Neither of Smith’s cases against Trump reached trial and the president-elect has fiercely maintained his innocence during the ‘political’ prosecution.
Trump tore into the special counsel during an hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago last week.
Smith’s team asked a judge to set aside the January 6 case, saying ‘This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant’
One of the volumes in Smith’s report relates to Trump’s possession of national security documents to Mar-a-Lago
‘[Smith’s] picture was perfect, because you look at his picture, you say that’s a bad guy with his robe – his purple robe – and he executes people. He shouldn’t be allowed to execute people, because he’ll execute everybody. He’s a nutjob. But we won all of those cases with him.’
He went on praise ‘brilliant’ Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida who ruled that Smith’s special counsel appointment was unlawful last year.
Smith himself asked that the January 6 case against Trump be withdrawn after he defeated Kamala Harris in the election. Prosecutors also stood down in the classified documents case, where they were appealing a district judge’s order to dismiss the case.
‘And some judges and prosecutors say, look, the only way I’m going to get these people off my back is to give victory to them,’ said Trump.
‘They’re playing the ref. I think it’s illegal what they do … It’s worse than talking to a judge. But the judge in Florida, Judge Cannon, was brilliant and tough, and she didn’t stand for it. And I don’t know her – and never met her until the case – and I don’t believe I said even one word to her,’ Trump said.
Material in the special counsel’s report could damage the incoming administration just as it is trying to get underway after what Trump’s lawyers call a ‘national mandate from the voters.’
Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche – who Trump is nominating to a top DOJ role – claimed in a blistering letter to Garland that the draft report is a ‘politically-motivated attack.’
They call it the product of a ‘bad-faith crusade’, and claim Smith lacks the authority to produce it, and that it ‘violates fundamental norms regarding the presumption of innocence,’ including toward third parties charged alongside Trump.
Trump tore into the special counsel during an hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago last week
They say the ‘release of any confidential report prepared by this out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump and justify the huge sums of taxpayer money Smith unconstitutionally spent on his failed and dismissed cases.’
The legal cases against Trump imploded after he won the presidential election, in part due to longstanding DOJ guidelines against charging the president while in office.
Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump, accepting his lawyers’ argument that Smith’s appointment wasn’t constitutional.
That decision was on appeal when Trump won the election in November.
The release of a major final report by a special counsel can be an explosive event. Special Counsel Robert Hur’s final report on the Hunter Biden saga last spring contained damaging language calling President Joe Biden an ‘elderly man with a poor memory’ that reverberated through the campaign.
Trump’s team says a ‘one-sided, improper report’ would violate the presidential immunity principles established by the Supreme Court.
They were able to view the draft report in D.C., and say its first volume ‘asserts, without any jury determination, that President Trump and others ‘engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort,’ was ‘the head of the criminal conspiracies,’ and harbored a ‘criminal design.’
They cite page 68 and 69 of the still unseen draft report, with other citations running through page 108.
The second volume ‘asserts that Trump ‘violated multiple federal criminals laws,’ with citations up to page 121 – suggestion a lengthy report of beyond 200 pages.
The letter faults Smith for filing ‘gratuitous speaking indictments,’ holding a ‘lawless press conference,’ and filing ‘extremely serious, and entirely false, allegations’ against Trump in the January 6 case and the classified documents case.
At the same time, Trump co-defendants in the documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, have asked Judge Cannon to block Garland from releasing the report, arguing it would prevent them from getting a fair trial.
Their obstruction cases continue even after Smith withdrew the government’s appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The lawyers blast Smith and his team ‘as the inauguration approaches’ of efforts to put out a report that is ‘not a legitimate use of taxpayer funds,’ and accuse him of ‘lawfare’ – a phrase invoked by Trump himself.
They accuse him of ‘unlawfully’ encroaching on the ‘Executive authority of the incoming Administration of President Trump to resolve the issues surrounding Smith’s Office in accordance with President Trump’s commanding national mandate from the voters.’
