The evidence wJack Smith’s 137-page report, released overnight less than one week before Trump will be sworn in for a second term as president, is a full-throated justification of his investigation and defense against his myriad critics.

U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith concluded that Donald Trump engaged in an "unprecedented criminal effort" to hold on to power after losing the 2020 election, but was thwarted in bringing the case to trial by the president-elect's November election victory.

The report, which said the special counsel’s office stood “fully behind” the merits of the prosecution, amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the president-elect.

Donald Trump would have been convicted of election interference if not for winning re-election, said Jack Smith, special counsel who indicted the former and future president, in his final report.

Prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to convict Donald Trump for efforts to overturn the 2020 result before they had to drop the case, Jack Smith said.

Jack Smith wrote that Donald Trump would have been convicted had the case been allowed to proceed and explained why he didn’t pursue charges of incitement of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

The Department of Justice early Tuesday released special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The public report is also incomplete. Its second volume, which pertains to Smith’s investigation of the classified documents found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after he left o