Jack Smith

President Trump was, by a large measure, the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy.

For nearly three decades, I've been a career prosecutor.

I've served during both Republican and Democratic administrations, and I've been guided by those principles in every role I've held.

I continued to honor those principles when I was appointed to serve as special counsel in November of 2022.

The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine.

But the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions, as alleged in the indictments returned by grand juries in two different districts.

Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.

Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed that President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January of 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a ballroom and a bathroom.

He then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.

I remain grateful for the counsel, judgment, and advice of my team as I executed my responsibilities.

I am both saddened and angered that President Trump has sought revenge against career prosecutors, FBI agents, and support staff simply for doing their jobs and for having worked on those cases.

These dedicated public servants are the best of us.

and they have been wrongly vilified and improperly dismissed from their jobs.

I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.

We took our actions based on the facts and the law, the very lessons I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.

We followed Justice Department policies and observed legal requirements.

The timing and speed of our work reflects the strength of the evidence and our confidence that we would have secured convictions at trial.

Jack Smith led two investigations into President Trump, one over Trump's attempt to cast doubt on the 2020 election results, which led to the January 6th storming of the Capitol.

The second was over Trump's handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

The Department of Justice dropped both these cases once Trump was elected again in 2024.