Judge clears way for Trump election interference report

President-elect Donald Trump would have been found guilty of trying to influence the results of the 2020 election – which he lost – if he had not been successfully re-elected in 2024, according to a Justice Department report released to Congress.

“The official evidence was sufficient to convict,” Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report said.

Smith is “confused” and his findings are “false”, Mr Trump said after the report was released.

The 137-page document was sent to Congress after Judge Aileen Cannon cleared the way for the first part of Smith’s report – on election tampering – to be released.

He ordered that the case be heard later in the week if he releases part of the report on the grounds that Trump illegally kept government documents.

The president-elect will take office on January 20.

The special counsel, Jack Smith, resigned last week.

Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the US Justice Department’s investigation into Trump. Special counsel are appointed by the department when there are potential conflicts.

Trump has been accused of illegally storing documents and sometimes keeps them in rooms at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where he lives. In the tampering case, he was accused of conspiring to tamper with the results of the 2020 election.

Both cases led to the impeachment of Trump, who pleaded not guilty and sought to make the charges politically motivated.

But Smith dropped the charges after Trump’s election in November, in accordance with Justice Department rules that bar the prosecution of a sitting president.

Indeed, in the released report, Smith says: “The department [of justice] the idea that the Constitution prohibits the continuation of impeachment and the impeachment of the president are very different and do not turn on the magnitude of the charges against him, the strength of the government’s evidence or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands behind. ”

Since then, there have been legal back-and-forths regarding the charges.

Last week, Judge Cannon temporarily halted the release of Smith’s full report, out of concern that it could affect the prosecutions of two of Trump’s associates who are indicted in high-profile cases.

Walt Nauta, a Trump aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, are accused of helping Trump hide documents.

Unlike Trump, their cases are still pending — and their lawyers said the release of Smith’s report could sway future judges.