PBS News Hour

AMNA NAWAZ: In his final report to the attorney general, special counsel Jack Smith stood behind his decision to criminally charge president-elect Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In the 137-page report, Smith again detailed the evidence that he and his team amassed and would have presented at trial, writing -- quote -- "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 report was written before Smith resigned from the Department of Justice last week.

Our William Brangham has been following all the criminal investigations into the president-elect and joins us now.

So, William, this is Jack Smith saying he's confident that he could have convicted Trump, but he was blocked by this longstanding DOJ policy that prohibits the prosecution of a sitting president.

What else did he have to say in the report?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right, Amna.

We should also say, federal prosecutors always say, as a general rule, that, if we could have gone to trial, we would have been able to convict the defendant.

I mean, federal prosecutors, by their nature, do not indict people they do not have a great deal of confidence that they could win against.

But, that said, this report is really a summary and a sort of encapsulation of all the evidence that his indictments have shown over the last year.

There's nothing really new in here.

They're simply alleging that Donald Trump knew that the 2020 election was lost, that Joe Biden beat him, that there was no widespread fraud, and that he refused to accept those results.

And Smith writes; "Trump then engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power."

And this report, those many, many pages detail all the ways that we have talked about over the past year that Trump allegedly unlawfully tried to stay in power.

That was pressuring state and local elections officials.

That was pressuring Department of Justice officials.

That was creating this fake electors scheme, pressuring Mike Pence, culminating, of course, with what Smith alleges was, Trump's campaign of lies of a stolen election is what drove that violent horde into the Capitol on January 6, where 140 law enforcement officials were savagely beaten and attacked.

And, again, as you said, Jack Smith says all of that evidence, if I had been able to present it in court, would have been persuasive.

But because Trump won and the DOJ doesn't prosecute a sitting president, that case and all of that evidence got dropped.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, William, Mr. Trump tried to block this report from coming out, from being released.

Last night, he criticized that release.

He called Jack Smith a lamebrain prosecutor.

And all along, Donald Trump has basically alleged this was a political Democratic effort led by President Biden to, in his words, weaponize the Justice Department against him.

Did Jack Smith address any of that?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Yes, he did.

In fact, he reiterated this quite a bit in his report.

Smith goes to great lengths to reject that allegation, writing -- quote - - "Nobody within the Department of Justice ever sought to interfere with or improperly influence my prosecutorial decision-making."

Smith writes throughout that the decision in this case, in all of them, was his and his alone.

He writes: "The ultimate decision to bring charges against Mr. Trump was mine.

It is a decision I stand behind fully."

On the issue that President Biden himself was somehow the puppet master in all of this, Smith says: "For anyone who knows me, they know that that idea is, in a word, laughable."

AMNA NAWAZ: So, William, this report covered the January 6 investigation, but there was another investigation by Jack Smith that was into Mr. Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

That is not in this report.

Will we ever see that volume?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That volume, it's complicated.

That case, as you remember, was dismissed by the judge, that she argued that Jack Smith was improperly appointed to his position.

That report has been written.

It is with the Department of Justice, but the department has said they're not going to release it publicly at least until the cases involving two of the other defendants in that case are finished.

So maybe we will see it.

We don't know.

It won't be any time soon.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, our William Brangham, thank you so much.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Thanks, Amna.