Takeaways from special counsel Jack Smith's report on January 6 and Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

68% : Unsaid by Smith: Three of the justices in the 6-3 majority were appointed by Trump during the same term for which he now enjoyed immunity.
54% : The special counsel noted that more than 1,500 people have been charged for their actions at the US Capitol on January 6, so Trump shouldn't have gotten off the hook: "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." Nevertheless, there are others who also will avoid federal charges thanks to Trump's win: the unindicted co-conspirators.
50% : " Trump and the public have seen this language before.
42% : This is the second time a special counsel investigating Trump has pointed to the fact that Justice Department policy means the former and future president won't face a jury.
42% : " Trump and the unindicted co-conspirators in the case "went well beyond speaking their minds or contesting the election results though our legal system," Smith said, regarding the efforts to overturn Joe Biden's election win.
37% : As with all of the legal battles Trump won over the past couple of years, it's part of the ultimate "what if?" question of the 2024 election.
36% : Smith's 137-page report, released overnight less than one week before Trump is sworn in for a second term as president, is a full-throated justification of his investigation and defense against his myriad critics.
35% : A second volume, summing up the other half of Smith's work, on what's been assessed to be a strong but now-closed case against Trump over the retention of classified records after his presidency and obstruction of justice, is still not public.
29% : With Trump about to be shielded from prosecution as the sitting president, per Justice Department policy, Smith wrote, it was all over.
28% : " Impeachment -- even if Trump had been convicted by the Senate -- is a political process, not a legal one, Smith wrote.
27% : Trump was also able to leverage the immunity ruling to delay being sentenced before the presidential election after being convicted in New York on fraud charges relating to hush money payments to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
26% : " Attorney General Merrick Garland has faced criticism from the left for not appointing a special counsel to investigate Trump until November 2022 -- and Smith didn't begin his work until early the next year.
26% : And while Trump pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and consistently called the investigation a "witch hunt," his lawyers didn't have any pushback to the facts of Smith's report, the special counsel said.
25% : It declined the request, waited for an appeals court ruling (which Trump lost) and didn't hear oral arguments in the case until April.
22% : Trump was impeached for his role in inciting the riot on January 6, 2021, but was acquitted by the Senate.
19% : Former special counsel Robert Muller, in his report on alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, said there was more than enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice but didn't.
18% : The evidence was there to convict Donald Trump.
17% : And while he faced substantial political and legal headwinds -- especially from the Supreme Court -- Smith said his ultimate defeat was at the ballot box when Trump was reelected.
17% : Decision to charge Trump was fully justified Smith said his office would not have charged Trump if he was merely exercising his free speech rights by engaging in "exaggeration or rough-and-tumble politics.
13% : " Dropping charges doesn't exonerate Trump, Smith insists Trump, who from January 6, 2021, has insisted he did nothing wrong and now plans to pardon many of those arrested, charged and convicted of rioting at the Capitol that day, has repeatedly said he was exonerated since the charges were dropped.

*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.