Left: Jack Smith speaks about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, at a Department of Justice office in Washington (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File). Right: Donald Trump speaks to members of the media before departing Manhattan criminal court, Monday, May 6, 2024, in New York (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, Pool).
The Department of Justice on Tuesday morning released former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his office’s investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. The report was accompanied by a letter from Smith to Attorney General Merrick Garland in which Smith proclaimed that he stood behind his office’s decision to prosecute Trump — and called the president-elect’s claim that the Biden administration directed his actions “laughable.”
The highly-anticipated 137-page report was released shortly after a temporary injunction put in place by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon expired. Cannon, a Trump appointee, on Monday evening rejected an eleventh-hour request from the president-elect to extend the injunction until at least Friday.
In his letter to Garland, Smith lauded his team at the special counsel’s office as being “without peer in terms of accomplishment, capability, judgment, and work ethic” as well as exemplifying “the highest personal integrity.”
