NEW: Summary of Final Jan. 6 Report

And Yes, He's Guilty as Hell!

Like Project 2025 and the Mueller Report, most Americans will not read the Jan. 6 Report released by Jack Smith early this morning.

So I thought it would be of service to read, review and summarize it for my subscribers. I will focus on facts and arguments that are new or less known:

Hope this is helpful to read, even if it’s also painful:

The Cover Letter:

In his cover letter, Smith summarizes: “after conducting thorough investigations, I found that, with respect to both Mr. Trump's unprecedented efforts to unlawfully retain power after losing the 2020 election and his unlawful retention of classified documents after leaving office, the Principles compelled prosecution. Indeed, Mr. Trump's cases represented ones “in which the offense [was] the most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof the most certain." Jackson, "The Federal Prosecutor."

The Report:

Overall

“As alleged in the original and superseding indictments, substantial evidence demonstrates that Mr. Trump…engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power. Although he did so primarily in his private capacity as a candidate, and with the assistance of multiple private co-conspirators, Mr. Trump also attempted to use the power and authority of the United States Government in furtherance of his scheme…”

“[W]hen 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. This included attempts to induce state officials to ignore true vote counts; to manufacture fraudulent slates of presidential electors in seven states that he had lost; to force Justice Department officials and his own Vice President, Michael R. Pence, to act in contravention of their oaths and to instead advance Mr. Trump's personal interests; and, on January 6, 2021, to direct an angry mob to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election and then leverage rioters' violence to further delay it.…”

“The throughline of all of Mr. Trump's criminal efforts was deceit—knowingly false claims of election fraud—and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States' democratic process.”

The Facts

Trump Knew His Claims Were False

“The Office investigated whether Mr. Trump believed the claims he made. Evidence from a variety of sources established that Mr. Trump knew that there was no outcome-determinative fraud in the 2020 election, that many of the specific claims he made were untrue, and that he had lost the election. He knew this because some of the highest-ranking officials in his own Administration, including the Vice President, told him directly that there was no evidence to support his claims….State officials and legislators whom Mr. Trump pressured to change vote tallies or stop certifications of results rebuffed him and informed him that his fraud claims were wrong, both privately and through public statements….”

“[S]tate officials-better positioned than Mr. Trump to know the facts in their states-repeatedly told Mr. Trump that his fraud claims were unfounded and that there was no evidence of substantial election fraud in their states…”

“Mr. Trump and co-conspirators could not have believed the specific fraud claims that they were making because the numbers they touted-for instance, of dead voters in a particular state- frequently vacillated wildly from day to day or were objectively impossible…”

“Finally, at times, Mr. Trump made comments implicitly acknowledging that he knew he had lost the election. For example, in a January 3, 2021 Oval Office meeting regarding a national security matter, Mr. Trump stated in part, "[I]t's too late for us. We're going to give that to the next guy," meaning President-elect Biden.”

Pressure on State Officials To Change Results

“Mr. Trump contacted state legislators and executives, pressured them with false claims of election fraud in their states, and urged them to take action to ignore the vote counts and change the results. Significantly, he made election claims only to state legislators and executives who shared his political affiliation and were his political supporters, and only in states that he had lost….”

Trump not only appealed to partisan loyalty to get officials to change outcomes (Arizona — "we're all kind of Republicans and we need to be working together”), he made threats to those who wouldn’t cooperate (Georgia — “not reporting it ... that's a criminal offense. And you know, you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you ....").

The Fraudulent Elector Plan

“Under this plan, they would organize the people who would have served as Mr. Trump's electors, had he won the popular vote, in seven states that Mr. Trump had lost-Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin-and cause them to sign and send to Washington false certifications claiming to be the legitimate electors.3 Ultimately, as explained below, Mr. Trump and co-conspirators used the fraudulent certificates to try to obstruct the congressional certification proceeding….”

“Mr. Trump set the fraudulent elector plan into motion in early December, ensured that it was carried out by co-conspirators and Campaign agents in the targeted states, and monitored its progress….”

“For the most part, the co-conspirators deceived Mr. Trump's elector nominees in the targeted states by falsely claiming that their electoral votes would be used only if ongoing litigation were resolved in Mr. Trump's favor….”

A New Mexico elector was asked: “"[The certificates] were only to be used in the case that . . . something actually changed the outcome of the election in New Mexico? Trump Elector: That's correct. Q: And that was important to you? Trump Elector: Yes. . . . Q: And were you surprised by [how the certificates were used on January 6th]? Trump Elector: Extremely surprised."…

“In each of the targeted states, Mr. Trump and his co- conspirators successfully organized enough elector nominees and substitutes to gather on December 14, cast fraudulent electoral votes on his behalf, and send them to Washington, D.C., for the congressional certification-a fact that the RNC Chairwoman relayed to Mr. Trump on the evening of December 14.”

January 6 Certification Plan

“At the same time that Mr. Trump's elector nominees in the targeted states were preparing to gather and cast fraudulent votes, his co-conspirators were planning to use them to overturn the election results at the January 6 certification….”

“On December 13, Co-Conspirator 5 sent Co-Conspirator 1 a memorandum that envisioned a scenario in which the Vice President would use the fraudulent slates to claim that there were dueling slates of electors from the targeted states and negotiate a solution for Mr. Trump to seize power. And on December 16, Co-Conspirator 5 traveled to Washington with a group of private attorneys who had done work for Mr. Trump's Campaign in Wisconsin for a meet-and-greet with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office; as the group left, Co-Conspirator 5 had a direct, private conversation with Mr. Trump.

Days later, on December 19, Mr. Trump publicly posted a Tweet demonstrating his own focus on the certification proceeding and directing his supporters to gather in Washington, D.C., to oppose it.”

Official Use of DOJ

“Mr. Trump also tried another tack: he attempted to wield federal power to perpetuate his fraud claims and retain office. Mr. Trump was frustrated with the Justice Department because its criminal investigations had identified no evidence of substantial fraud and the Attorney General had publicly acknowledged this fact in an interview on December 1 by saying, among other things, "to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election." As a result, Mr. Trump considered appointing Co-Conspirator 4-a Justice Department attorney who worked on civil matters-to be the Acting Attorney General, because as described below, Co-Conspirator 4 was willing to use the Justice Department to spread Mr. Trump's lies and pressure targeted states to overturn election results….”

“Mr. Trump made clear that he wanted to appoint Co-Conspirator 4 because Co-Conspirator 4 would cause the Justice Department to send to the targeted states the false letter that the Acting Attorney General and the Acting Deputy Attorney General had rejected as inaccurate and improper…”

Trump Pressure on VP Pence

“In repeated conversations, day after day, Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Pence to use his ministerial position as President of the Senate to change the election outcome, often by citing false claims of election fraud as justification; he even falsely told Mr. Pence that the "Justice Department [was] finding major infractions.” When Mr. Pence repeatedly refused to act as Mr. Trump wanted, Mr. Trump told him that "hundreds of thousands" of people would "hate his guts" and think he was "stupid," and that Mr. Pence was "too honest." Surrounding these communications, Mr. Trump frequently took to Twitter to exhort supporters to travel to Washington for January 6, such as when he tweeted on January 1, "The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!"…

“When Mr. Pence turned to Mr. Trump and pointed out that even "[Mr. Trump's] lawyer," Co-Conspirator 2, did not think Mr. Pence had the authority to return electoral votes to the states, Mr. Trump responded that he "like[d] the other thing better," which Mr. Pence understood to mean Mr. Pence simply rejecting the electoral votes outright. In the end, Mr. Pence again stated that he did not believe he could do what he was being asked.”

That night, Mr. Trump used a speech in Dalton, Georgia, to focus the crowd on the idea that Mr. Pence could change the results of the election, saying, "I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you. I hope that our great Vice President, our great Vice President comes through for us. . . . Of course, if he doesn't come through, I won't like him quite as much." The next day, on January 5, when Mr. Trump again failed to make headway with Mr. Pence in a private conversation, Mr. Trump warned that he would have to publicly criticize Mr. Pence. Mr. Trump then (in response to a New York Times report on the conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence) issued a false statement claiming, "The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.”…

January 6 Attack on the Capitol

“At around 1:00 a.m. on the morning of January 6, Mr. Trump tweeted: "If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!"Just before he left the White House to give his speech at the Ellipse, Mr. Trump phoned Mr. Pence one last time; when Mr. Pence told Mr. Trump that he planned to issue a public statement making clear that he lacked the authority to do what Mr. Trump wanted, Mr. Trump expressed anger at him. He then directed staffers to re-insert into his planned Ellipse speech some language that he had drafted earlier targeting Mr. Pence.”

“During his speech at the Ellipse, Mr. Trump made one more attempt to retain power. In his remarks, Mr. Trump repeated many of the same lies he had been telling for months- regarding dead voters, non-citizen voters, and vote dumps-and he told newer ones: lies that targeted states wanted to change their electors and that Mr. Pence had the authority, and might be persuaded, to change the election results. The lie regarding Mr. Pence was particularly deceptive because Mr. Trump knew what his supporters in the crowd did not: that Mr. Pence had just told him in no uncertain terms that he would not do what Mr. Trump was demanding.”

Trump “used the word "fight" more than ten times in the speech before concluding by directing his supporters to march to the Capitol to give allied Members of Congress "the kind of pride and boldness they need to take back our country." He also told the angry crowd that "if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." Throughout the speech, Mr. Trump gave his supporters false hope that through such action, they could cause Mr. Pence to overturn the election results, even improvising new lines directed at Mr. Pence as the speech went on…”

“At Mr. Trump's urging, thousands of his supporters marched from the Ellipse to the Capitol building….Outside the building, the crowd swelled and broke through barriers cordoning off the grounds. The crowd that attacked the Capitol was filled with Mr. Trump's supporters, as made clear by their Trump shirts, signs, and flags. As described in detail below, the crowd violently attacked the law enforcement officers attempting to secure the building….”

“After his speech, Mr. Trump returned to the White House and, at around 1:30 p.m., settled in the dining room off of the Oval Office. There, he watched television news coverage of events at the Capitol and reviewed Twitter on his phone. When the angry crowd advanced on the Capitol building and breached it at around 2:13 p.m., forcing the Senate to recess, several of Mr. Trump's advisors rushed to the dining room and told him that a riot had started at the Capitol and that rioters were in the building. Over the course of the afternoon, they forcefully urged Mr. Trump to issue calming messages to his supporters. Mr. Trump resisted, repeatedly remarking that the people at the Capitol were angry because the election had been stolen.”….

“[A]t 2:24 p.m., sitting alone, Mr. Trump issued a Tweet attacking Mr. Pence and fueling the riot: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!" One minute later, the United States Secret Service was forced to evacuate Mr. Pence to a secure location at the Capitol. When an advisor at the White House learned this, he rushed to the dining room and informed Mr. Trump, who replied "So what?"…

“Throughout the afternoon, crowds at the Capitol hunted for Mr. Pence and other lawmakers, with some chanting, "Hang Mike Pence!"“

STILL seeking Delay AFTER the Attack

After 6, “Mr. Trump tried to reach two United States Senators, and he also directed Co-Conspirator 1 to call Members of Congress and attempt to enlist them to further delay the certification. When Mr. Trump's White House Counsel called him at around 7:00 p.m. and asked him to withdraw any objections to the certification, Mr. Trump refused.”

The Charges

Based on these facts, the grand jury found probably cause to indict Trump on four charges:

1. conspiring to obstruct the governmental function of selecting and certifying the President of the United States;

2. obstructing and attempting to obstruct the official proceeding on January 6, 2021

3. conspiring to obstruct the official proceeding, and;

4. conspiring to violate the federal rights of citizens to vote and have their votes counted.

Here are a few notes on the charges:

Conspiracy to Defraud the United States

“The core of Mr. Trump's obstructive scheme was a false narrative of outcome- determinative voter fraud, which he and his surrogates frequently repeated and widely disseminated over the course of two months. Crucially, not only was Mr. Trump's voter-fraud narrative objectively false-he knew that it was false….

• [A] Senior Advisor reiterated to Mr. Trump that Co- Conspirator 1 would be unable to prove his false fraud allegations in court, to which Mr. Trump responded, "The details don't matter."

• “Mr. Trump's false claims were often divergent from one day to the next and otherwise internally inconsistent.”

• “[I[n advance of the election, advisors told Mr. Trump that the election would be close and that initial returns might be misleading, showing an early lead for Mr. Trump that would diminish as mail-in ballots were counted. In response, Mr. Trump suggested that if that prediction were true-which it ultimately was-he would simply declare victory before all ballots were counted and a winner was projected. He also made repeated public statements in the lead-up to election day in which he sowed public doubt in the election results, setting the stage for his later fraud claims. And Mr. Trump made his first statement claiming fraud in the election only hours after polls closed-when no investigations had begun, much less concluded.”

• “In private-in contrast with his public false claims-Mr. Trump made admissions that reflected his understanding that he had lost. In a private moment, Mr.

  Trump confessed to his family members that "it doesn't matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell." When President-elect Biden appeared on television in November, Mr. Trump said to a staffer, "can you believe I lost to this f'ing guy?" And when his own Vice President declined to join the conspiracy, Mr. Trump berated him for being "too honest.””
  

Conspiracy Against Rights

“Mr. Trump and co-conspirators sought to deprive-that is, injure or oppress-citizens of their constitutional right to have their presidential election votes counted. The words "injure or oppress" in Section 241 are not used in any technical sense, but cover a variety of conduct intended to prevent, harm, inhibit, hinder, frustrate, obstruct, or interfere with the free exercise and enjoyment of a right…. Although they were not in a backroom altering the vote tallies in a local election, or stuffing falsified ballots into the ballot boxes, as alleged in prior cases charged under this statute, Mr. Trump and co-conspirators nonetheless sought the same result: to effectively cast aside legitimate votes in a manner that would have deprived citizens of their right to vote and have their votes counted.”

• “As Co-Conspirator 1 admitted, their primary objective was to "just flat out change the vote, deduct that number of votes from the - declare those votes, 300,000 votes in Philadelphia, illegal, unlawful. Reduce the number by 300,000."“

• “He urged state officials to disregard the legitimate majority of votes for Mr. Biden and pressured and threatened Georgia's Secretary of State to "find" more than 11,000 votes to dilute Mr. Biden's vote count in the state.”

• “And he urged Mr. Pence to discard the legitimate electoral certificates that reflected millions of citizens' votes in the targeted states.”

“It bears emphasis that Mr. Trump's knowing deceit was pervasive throughout the charged conspiracies. This was not a case in which Mr. Trump merely misstated a fact or two in a handful of isolated instances. On a repeated basis, he and co-conspirators used specific and knowingly false claims of election fraud in his calls and meetings with state officials, in an effort to induce them to overturn the results of the election in their states; to his own Vice President, to induce Mr. Pence to violate his duty during the congressional certification proceeding; and on January 6, as a call to action to the angry crowd he had gathered at the Ellipse and sent to the Capitol to disrupt the certification proceeding. Mr. Trump and co-conspirators used other forms of deceit as well-including when they falsely represented that the fraudulent electoral votes would be used only if Mr. Trump prevailed in pending contests in their states, and when they caused the fraudulent electors to falsely swear that they were duly certified and send those false certifications to Congress.”

The Interests in Prosecuting

“Mr. Trump's prosecution served multiple federal interests, including the federal interest in the integrity of the United States' process for collecting, counting, and certifying presidential elections, and in a peaceful and orderly transition of presidential power; the federal interest in ensuring that every citizen's vote is counted; the federal interest in protecting public officials and government workers from violence; and the federal interest in the fair and even-handed enforcement of the law. All of these federal interests, which are rooted in the law, the Constitution, and our basic democratic values, are substantial and command protection from Mr. Trump's criminal design to subvert them.”

Integrity of Vote Counting Process

“Mr. Trump targeted a key federal government function-the process by which the United States collects, counts, and certifies the results of the presidential election-and sought to obstruct or defeat it through fraud and deceit.”

1. “He did so using knowingly false claims of election fraud to attempt to induce state officials to reject citizens' votes and instead appoint Mr. Trump's electors; when he deceived his electors and caused them to falsify electoral certificates and submit them to Congress; when he attempted to enlist Mr. Pence with false claims of election fraud and pressure; and when he used, and attempted to leverage, an angry crowd of his supporters-fueled by Mr. Trump's lies-to stop the certification proceeding.”

2. “Mr. Trump did this in contravention of the Framers' intent to prevent a sitting President from perpetuating himself in power. "In free Governments," Benjamin Franklin explained, "the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors & sovereigns."“

Protecting Votes

“Few federal interests are stronger in our representative democracy than that of protecting every eligible citizen's right to vote and to have that vote counted. The evidence establishes that in contravention of that right, Mr. Trump urged state officials to disregard the legitimate majority of votes for Mr. Biden and instead appoint Mr. Trump's electors; pressured and threatened Georgia's Secretary of State to "find" more than 11,000 votes to dilute the legitimate vote count and allow Mr. Trump to be declared the winner of the state; and urged Mr. Pence to discard the legitimate electoral certificates that reflected millions of citizens' votes in the targeted states. An additional factor meriting Mr. Trump's prosecution therefore was the need to vindicate and protect the voting rights of these and all future voters.”

Stopping Violence

“Another federal interest that merited Mr. Trump's prosecution was addressing his resort, throughout the charged criminal conspiracies, to threats and encouragement of violence against his perceived opponents…There is unquestionably a public interest in ensuring that elected officials and election workers can carry out their duties without fear of threats and retaliation.”:

1. “Consistently, when elected officials refused to take improper actions that Mr. Trump urged, like discarding legitimate votes or appointing fraudulent electors, Mr. Trump attacked them publicly on Twitter, a social media application on which he had more than 80 million followers. Inevitably, threats and intimidation to these officials followed….

2. “Mr. Trump also targeted private citizens who served as election workers. He took particular aim at a mother and daughter who worked at Atlanta's State Farm Arena counting ballots on election day; he and his co-conspirators spread pernicious false claims that these election workers had committed misconduct.”

3. “In addition to prompting these threats against the targets of Mr. Trump's criticisms, Mr. Trump's words inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence…The January 6 rioters assaulted at least 140 law enforcement officers that day, and at least 123 defendants have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to law enforcement. This violence took a lasting toll. In addition to the significant physical injuries inflicted that day, officers suffered "unseen injuries," including depression and other forms of psychological trauma.”

Equal Treatment with Jan. 6 Rioters

“To date, more than 1,500 people have been criminally charged for their roles in the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. With that in mind, Mr. Trump's relative culpability weighed heavily in favor of charging him, as the individual most responsible for what occurred at the Capitol on January 6.”

1. “After January 6, when rioters began to face accountability for their unlawful acts at the Capitol, many pointed to Mr. Trump in an attempt to excuse or mitigate their conduct.”

A Few Other Lowpoints:

• “A significant challenge that the Office faced after Mr. Trump's indictment was his ability and willingness to use his influence and following on social media to target witnesses, courts, and Department employees, which required the Office to engage in time-consuming litigation to protect witnesses from threats and harassment.”

• “Before this case, no court had ever found that Presidents are immune from criminal responsibility for their official acts, and no text in the Constitution explicitly confers such criminal immunity on the President.”

Conclusion

“The parties were in the middle of th[e litigation] process when the results of the presidential election made clear that Mr. Trump would be inaugurated as President of the United States on January 20, 2025. As described above, it has long been the Department's interpretation that the Constitution forbids the federal indictment and prosecution of a sitting President, but the election results raised for the first time the question of the lawful course when a private citizen who has already been indicted is then elected President. The Department determined that the case must be dismissed without prejudice before Mr. Trump takes office, and the Office therefore moved to dismiss the indictment on November 25, 2024….

The Department's view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not tum 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. 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.”