WASHINGTON — The Justice Department early Tuesday sent members of Congress a section of special counsel Jack Smith’s report summarizing his investigation into President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to maintain power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden that culminated in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter.
A copy of the report was obtained by NBC News, in which Smith defends his decision to charge Trump.
“While I relied greatly on the counsel, judgment, and advice of our team, I want it to be clear that the ultimate decision to bring charges against Mr. Trump was mine,” Smith wrote in a letter accompanying the report.
The report states that Trump spread claims that were “demonstrably and, in many cases, obviously false,” and that Smith’s office determined that “Trump knew that there was no outcome-determinative fruad in the 2020 election, that man of the specific claims that he made were untrue, and that he had lost the election.”
The report brings to an end a chapter in American history that saw, for the first time, a former president indicted on federal charges only to go on and be re-elected and, in a few days, returned to power. Trump fought to keep the report secret, but last-minute requests to prohibit the release were refused.
Smith, who resigned on Friday, also authored a second volume of his report focused on the separate charges brought against Trump over his handling of classified documents, but that portion of the report was not released because charges against two of Trump’s co-defendants are still pending.
Trump, who was separately convicted of 34 felonies in connection with hush money payments to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign, had denied wrongdoing in connection with the effort to overturn the 2020 election. A federal grand jury indicted Trump on four felony charges — conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights — related to Jan. 6 and the efforts leading up to it. Under longstanding Justice Department policy that prevents the sitting president from being tried, the charges were dropped upon Trump’s victory in November.
While Trump has never publicly conceded that he knew lost the 2020 election but continued to insist otherwise, a federal grand jury said that the false claims he spread were “unsupported, objectively unreasonable, and ever-changing.”
The delay strategy used by Trump’s legal team ultimately allowed Trump to avoid trial before American voters elected him again in 2024, and resulted in a Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity that will now grant the incoming president wider latitude in office.
The report was released as Trump says he is preparing to pardon an untold number of Jan. 6 defendants. More than 1,580 defendants have been charged and more than 1,270 convicted on charges ranging from unlawful parading to seditious conspiracy. More than 700 defendants have either already completed their sentences or were never sentenced to any period of incarceration in the first place. Asked whether he could pardon rioters who committed violence against police officers, Trump did not rule it out.
Among those seeking a pardon is former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy in 2023 and sentenced to 22 years in federal prison, the longest sentence given to any Jan. 6 defendant. Vice President-elect JD Vance said over the weekend that those who committed violence should “obviously” not be pardoned. The mother of one Jan. 6 rioter who was shot and killed during the attack said that she received a call from Trump last week, with the president-elect telling Jan. 6 defendants to “keep their chins up.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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