BACKGRID

Attorney General Merrick Garland has released Jack Smith’s final report on President-elect Donald Trump‘s classified documents case. The report was submitted to Congress and released at 1 a.m. Tuesday after a court hold had expired.

The classified documents case centered on dozens of boxes of documents found during a raid at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate on August 8, 2022 in Palm Beach, Fla.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who led the investigation, assembled 20 prosecutors to go after Trump in 2023. Smith resigned this week, but the release of his report is one final blow to Trump.

Trump’s attorneys asked the court to block the release of the final report, but the request was denied. However, their legal filings did slow the release of the report.

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Smith’s report concluded that Trump committed “criminal efforts to retain power” and that “a D.C. jury would have convicted President Trump.”

“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 report claims Trump put “pressure on state officials,” and his Vice President Mike Pence. And how Trump’s supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Smith accused Trump’s supporters of trying to stop Pence from certifying the Electoral College results in the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Until Mr. Trump obstructed it, this democratic process had operated in a peaceful and orderly manner for more than 130 years,” Smith wrote.

Smith said Trump was “not exonerated” of the 4 charges brought against him. But Smith dropped the case after voters handed Trump a historic landslide win in November.

Of his failed attempt to prosecute Trump, Smith said that prosecutors “cannot control outcomes” (of elections), and can only do their jobs “the right way for the right reasons.”

Attorney General Garland’s critics complained that he didn’t appoint a special counsel for 2 years after the Jan. 6 protests in 2021. They claim Trump should have been convicted and sent to prison before the 2024 election.