Donald Trump would have been convicted in election interference case had he not won election, report claims

Donald Trump has made his feelings about a new Department of Justice report on his election interference case clear in a 1am rant.

US President-elect Donald Trump has launched an extraordinary tirade against the Department of Justice prosecutor who ultimately dropped his charges over interference in the 2020 election.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s long-awaited report, which was released just after midnight local time on Tuesday, argues that the president-elect would’ve been convicted at trial had he not won the 2024 presidential election.

This combination of pictures shows US President-elect Donald Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith who are at odds over the report. Picture: AFP

The 174-page report, obtained by multiple outlets after lawyers for the incoming president failed to stop its release, outlines the investigative process Mr Smith took in his case against Trump after being appointed special counsel by Attorney-General Merrick Garland shortly after Trump launched his 2024 White House bid.

Mr Trump immediately took to his social media platform to decry the contents of the report.

“Deranged Jack Smith was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss,’ Crooked Joe Biden, so he ends up writing yet another ‘Report’ based on information that the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs ILLEGALLY DESTROYED AND DELETED, because it showed how totally innocent I was, and how completely guilty Nancy Pelosi, and others, were,” Mr Trump wrote.

“Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide. THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!”

In a follow up post, Mr Trump condemned the late hour of the report’s release.

“To show you how desperate Deranged Jack Smith is, he released his Fake findings at 1:00 A.M. in the morning,” Mr Trump said.

“Did he say that the Unselect Committee illegally destroyed and deleted all of the evidence.

“MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Mr Trump is due to be sworn in at the US Capitol on January 20. Picture: AFP

Mr Smith’s report reiterated his long-held stance that a prosecution could have been successful.

“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 proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind,” Mr Smith wrote in the report’s conclusion.

“Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” he added.

The report was delivered to Congress by the Justice Department just after midnight Tuesday after a last-ditch attempt by Trump’s legal team to block its release was rejected by South Florida US District Judge Aileen Cannon late Monday night.

It is one of two volumes put together by Smith detailing the federal investigations into Trump.

The second volume, which relates to the classified documents case dismissed by Cannon last July, has not been made public as Smith is still pursuing charges against Trump’s two former co-defendants in the case – Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.

This story was first reported in the New York Post.

Originally published as Donald Trump would have been convicted in election interference case had he not won election, report claims