Special Counsel Jack Smith said on Tuesday that Donald Trump probably would have been convicted in the 2020 election subversion case, had he not been elected President of the United States. In the released report, the attorney disclosed that constitutional protection against the prosecution of a sitting president was the only reason that saved Trump from consequences.
In November 2024, Smith moved to dismiss two cases against Trump: the election subversion case and the other related to unlawful retention of classified documents after he left office. The election subversion case is about Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election results won by Joe Biden. On January 6, 2021, as Congress convened to certify the election outcome, Trump incited a mob of supporters to storm the Capitol in a bid to disrupt the certification process.
Smith’s report indicated that enough evidence was available to ensure a conviction, quoting, “The dropping of the case does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged or the strength of the government’s proof.” He observed that Trump’s actions-pressure on officials and the promotion of fraudulent electors-had marked a serious departure from the peaceful transfer of power that had distinguished American democracy for over a century.
Even as Trump refused to concede the election, saying that he had the result stolen from him, his legal team called Smith’s findings a politically motivated attack. While Smith dropped a number of cases against Trump, he still left the window open for possibly prosecuting him after Trump’s term ends in 2029; though there remains some question over the statute of limitations around these offenses. Legal experts say the second term would not affect the timeline for prosecution if the statute of limitations allows it.
