‘Trump would have been convicted if he did not been elected’

Donald Trump would have been convicted for “criminal efforts to retain power” following the 2020 United States presidential election had he not won the 2024 race, prosecutors have said.

A report, published by Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday, includes accusations made by US Special Counsel Jack Smith that the president-elect plotted to obstruct the collection and certification of votes following his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.

The report details Mr Smith’s decision to bring a four-count indictment against Trump, accusing him of plotting to obstruct the collection and certification of votes following his 2020 defeat by Democratic President Joe Biden.

It concludes that the evidence would have been enough to convict Trump at trial, but his imminent return to the presidency, set for Jan 20, made that impossible.

Mr Smith, who has come under relentless criticism from President-elect Trump, also defended his investigation and the prosecutors who worked on it.

“The claim from Mr Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable,” Mr Smith wrote in a letter detailing his report.