 "Former US President Donald Trump at the New York court during the hush money trial. AP")
Even though the 2020 election subversion case against US President-elect Donald Trump has been dropped, he has not been exonerated, said Special Counsel Jack Smith in a report released on Tuesday.
Smith said that the cases against Trump have only been dropped as the US law does now allow prosecution of a sitting president. He said that if Trump were not elected as the president in the 2024 election, he would have been convicted.
Smith said that the dropping of cases against Trump “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”.
Smith further said, “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.”
The election subversion case relates to Trump’s failed attempt to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election that outgoing US President Joe Biden won.
Even though the Trump-incited assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, is the starkest public memory of Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election result, his efforts also included pressurising officials to state officials to commit fraud, pressurising the then-Vice President Mike Pence to illegally certify the election result in his favour, and the use of fraudulent electors to overturn the result.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOn Jan. 6, 2021, as the Senate was meeting to certify the election result, Trump egged on a mob of his supporters to attack the US Capitol who went on to storm the Capitol with the intention to hijack the certification and illegally force the senators to certify the election in favour of Trump.
Click here to read the full report of Smith that runs in more than 150 pages.