Five takeaways from Smith’s report on Trump’s 2020 election case

Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to reverse his 2020 election defeat are presented in a final report by the special counsel that spent two years investigating it.

Much of what is in its 140 pages was already known, thanks to a congressional inquiry in 2022 and previous court documents from the author of the report, Jack Smith.

But he sheds new light on some of the evidence uncovered by Smith’s team and outlines his own thinking on some of the finer legal points.

Trump, who returns to the White House next week, took no time to respond to the report’s release, maintaining his innocence and calling Smith “deranged.”

Here are five takeaways from the report.

The report addresses the riot in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 – when Trump supporters invaded the building to try to defeat the certification of Biden’s victory, after hearing a speech about the Elisse in Washington DC by Trump, the defeated candidate.

“Mr. Trump’s words inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence,” the report said.

He continues to note: “Although Mr. Trump at one point also told his supporters to ‘make (their) voices heard in a peaceful and patriotic way,'” he used the word “fight” more than ten times in the speech “.

Trump promised upon his return to office to pardon many of those convicted of crimes related to the riot, which he tried to dismiss as a “day of love.”

His defenders rejected the idea that he deliberately incited the crowd, pointing to the “peaceful” quote highlighted by Smith above.

The report addresses the basis on which Trump was prosecuted, clarifying that Smith’s team planned to bring a charge of “incitement to insurrection” against the then-president.

The document says Trump’s speech on the Ellipse on January 6, 2021 could meet the Supreme Court’s definition of incitement, especially when viewed alongside his “long and deceptive narrative of fraud of the elector”.

The report suggests that the violence of the day was “predictable” for Trump, for example, and that he tried to “exploit” the events to delay the certification of Biden.

But Trump was ultimately not charged with incitement because Smith’s team did not find “direct evidence” of his intent to cause “the extent of violence” during the Capitol riot, making a conviction uncertain.

The document also notes that there were “other powerful payloads available.”

Several men accused and convicted of their involvement in the Capitol attack pointed to Trump’s influence as a motivating factor, the report says.

He cites a few of the rioters, including Alex Harkrider, who asked to be released from prison before his trial, arguing that “like thousands of others” he was only “responding to the pleas” of Trump.

Another man, David Mehaffi, when seeking mitigation in the sentence, quoted Trump’s speech and added: “I trust the president and it was a big mistake.”

What Smith fails to acknowledge in his report is that it was in the legal interests of these men to shift responsibility away from themselves.

In repeated conversations, day after day, Trump asked his vice president to use his ministerial position as president of the Senate to change the outcome of the election without certifying the results, Smith’s report says.

Pence refused, and on one occasion, Trump said that “hundreds of thousands” of people would “hate his shins” if he didn’t relent.

The campaign of pressure on his deputy continued in public. In a speech, Trump said he hoped Pence would do it but if he didn’t, “I’m not going to like it that much.”

Just before leaving the White House to give his speech on the Ellipse before the attack on the Capitol, Trump called Pence one last time, Smith says. When the vice president told him on the call that he did not have the authority to carry out Trump’s wishes, Trump told the staff to reinsert into his speech language he had previously written for Pence.

Moments after the speech, Trump supporters walked the halls of the Capitol chanting “hang Mike Pence,” and ransacked offices for him.

Smith outlines the experiences of law enforcement on duty when the mob stormed the Capitol building, during which at least 140 officers were assaulted.

He reported that 123 defendants had been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious injury to law enforcement officers.

“This violence has taken a lasting toll,” says the report, which highlights that 223 officers suffered “”invisible wounds,” including depression and other forms of psychological trauma.”

A footnote gives another account of the officers’ feelings of “survivor’s guilt,” “shell shock” and an “inability to move on from that day.”