How Trump Got Away With It, According to Jack Smith

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

69% : To Trump, who possesses a profound ability to evade accountability, that in itself marks a victory.
44% : In the sprawling 137-page report, Smith unspools Trump's efforts to block the peaceful transfer of power, from pressuring state and federal officials to nullify the election outcome to inciting a mob to ransack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
42% : The case faced a series of unique challenges that come with not only investigating a former President but the inexorable force of Trump himself.
41% : How Trump Got Away With It, According to Jack SmithEric CortellessaJanuary 14, 2025 at 7:54 PMPresident-elect Donald Trump speaks to members of the media following a meeting at the US Capitol on Jan. 8, 2025 in Washington, DC.
41% : Credit - Valerie Plesch -- Bloomberg via Getty ImagesDays before Donald Trump will return to the White House, Special Counsel Jack Smith relayed an unsettling message to the American people: He had unearthed enough evidence to potentially send the incoming President to prison.
39% : "Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide," Trump posted on his social media platform.
32% : Trump has said that one of his first acts after taking office on Jan. 20 will be to pardon most, if not all, of the defendants charged in relation to the attack on the Capitol.
31% : In each case, though, Trump won't face consequences.
26% : Smith dropped both cases after Trump won the 2024 election, citing a Justice Department policy that prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents.
20% : They are also trying to thwart the release of a separate Smith report on his prosecution of Trump for mishandling classified documents.
11% : Smith accuses Trump of trying to obstruct the certification of Biden's election "through fraud and deceit," including by encouraging "violence against his perceived opponents" in the days and weeks leading up to the insurrectionist riot.
9% : The Justice Department released on Tuesday its final report on Smith's charges alleging that Trump illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 election, saying that prosecutors secured the goods to convict Trump had his November victory not prevented the case from proceeding.
9% : The report says that prosecutors considered charging Trump with violating the Insurrection Act -- a 19th century statute that prohibits engaging in a rebellion against the U.S. government -- but ultimately decided there was not enough evidence that Trump intended to instigate the "full scope" of violence on Jan. 6.Many of those who committed violent acts may soon escape legal peril.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.