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US Justice Department says Trump would be convicted of election interference if he didn't become president

US Justice Department says Trump would be convicted of election interference if he didn't become president

President-elect Donald Trump would have been convicted of illegally attempting to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election – which he lost – if he had not been re-elected in 2024, according to a Justice Department report released to Congress.

"The admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and support a conviction at trial," Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's report said.

Smith is "crazy" and his findings are "false," Trump said after the report was released, the Telegraph reports.


The 137-page document was sent to Congress after Judge Aileen Cannon cleared the way for the release of the first of Smith's two-part report - on the issue of election interference.

She ordered a hearing later in the week on whether to release the part of the report on allegations that Trump illegally withheld classified government documents.

The president-elect takes office on January 20, and pro-incumbent Jack Smith resigned from his post last week.

Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the U.S. Justice Department's investigation into Trump. Special counsels are appointed by the department in cases where there is a potential conflict of interest.

Trump was accused of illegally retaining documents and, in some cases, storing them in rooms at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, his residence that he owns.

In the interference case, he was accused of conspiring to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.

Both cases resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who pleaded not guilty and sought to declare the prosecutions politically motivated.

But Smith closed the cases after Trump's election in November, in accordance with Justice Department regulations that prohibit the prosecution of a sitting president.

Indeed, in the published report, Smith says: “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 evidence, or the merits of the prosecution, which the office fully stands by.”

Since then, there has been a legal backlash over material related to the cases.

Last week, Judge Cannon temporarily blocked the release of Smith's entire report, due to concerns that it could affect the cases of two Trump associates charged with him in the classified documents case.

Walt Nauta, Trump's personal assistant, and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, are accused of helping Trump hide the documents.

Unlike Trump's, their cases are still pending - and their lawyers argued that the release of Smith's report could prejudice a future jury and trial.