CNN - Special counsel report condemns Trump’s ‘criminal efforts to retain power’ in 2020

By Tierney Sneed, Marshall Cohen, Holmes Lybrand and Evan Perez, CNN

Updated 5:09 AM EST, Tue January 14, 2025

Attorney General Merrick Garland has publicly released special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, detailing the president-elect’s “criminal efforts to retain power” and projecting confidence in the investigation.

The more than 130-page report, which was submitted to Congress and released early Tuesday after a court hold blocking its release expired at midnight, spells out in extensive — if largely already known — detail how Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. Smith’s team states in no uncertain terms that they believed Trump criminally attempted to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election results.

“As set forth in the original and superseding indictments, when it became clear that Mr. Trump had lost the election and that lawful means of challenging the election results had failed, he resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power,” the report states.

/snip

Jim Acosta
‪@jimacosta.bsky.social‬
“As set forth in the original and superseding indictments, when it became clear that Mr. Trump had lost the election and that lawful means of challenging the election results had failed, he resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power,” the report states. www.cnn.com/2025/01/14/p...

January 14, 2025 at 6:34 AM