Trump transition update: President-elect slams ‘deranged’ special counsel after damning 2020 election report

US president-elect Donald Trump, who will take office on 20 January, has hit out at Nancy Pelosi in a bizarre rant following a damning report which found he tried to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump insisted Pelosi was “completely guilty” as he slammed US attorney and author of the report Jack Smith as “deranged”.

Mr Smith said Trump “inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence” in the January 6 riots and knowingly spread a false narrative about fraud in the 2020 election.

It also concluded he would have been convicted for allegedly trying to overturn the US election if he had not been re-elected in 2024.

Special counsel Jack Smith said his team “stood up for the rule of law” as it investigated President-elect Donald Trump‘s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, writing in a much-anticipated report released Tuesday that he stands fully behind his decision to bring criminal charges he believes would have resulted in a conviction had voters not returned Trump to the White House.

“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 report states.

The report, arriving just days before Trump is to return to office on January 20, focuses fresh attention on his frantic but failed effort to cling to power in 2020.

With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump‘s election victory, the document is expected to be the final Justice Department chronicle of a dark chapter in American history that threatened to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, a bedrock of democracy for centuries, and complements already released indictments and reports.

Trump responded early Tuesday with a post on his Truth Social platform, claiming he was “totally innocent” and calling Smith “a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election.” He added, “THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!”

Trump had been indicted in August 2023 on charges of working to overturn the election, but the case was delayed by appeals and ultimately significantly narrowed by a conservative-majority Supreme Court that held for the first time that former presidents enjoy sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

Though Smith sought to salvage the indictment, the team dismissed it entirely in November because of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Hegseth for one of the most senior jobs in the administration: secretary of defense.

But since the day Trump announced his unorthodox choice to head up the Pentagon, there have been serious questions hanging over the 44-year-old Fox News host.

On Monday, Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon rejected arguments from Trump and his now-former co-defendants in the classified documents case who have tried to stop the Department of Justice from releasing the entire report.

Her decision clears the way for Attorney General Merrick Garland to partially release Smith’s report to the public once her initial three-day injunction expires at midnight Monday — less than a week before Trump returns to the White House.

Soon-to-be first lady Melania Trump insisted on Monday that she is “independent” and will stand up to her husband, saying she doesn’t always “agree with what Donald is saying” and she is more than “just the wife of the president.”

During a friendly sitdown on her spouse’s favorite morning show Fox & Friends, the incoming first lady spent much of her time promoting an upcoming documentary on her return to the White House, which was licensed by Amazon for an eye-popping $40 million and directed by disgraced Hollywood director Brett Ratner.

Justin Barangoa has the story.

According to a U.S. official familiar with the matter, incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions, and whether they have made social media posts that President-elect Donald Trump‘s team could consider incriminating.

At least some of these nonpolitical employees have begun packing up their belongings since being asked about their loyalty to Trump — after they had earlier been given indications that they would be asked to stay on at the NSC in the new administration, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

Eric Trump, son of president-elect Donald Trump, reportedly has been in talks to launch a new business venture: selling a new family-branded vodka.

Eric Trump Wineries has been discussing the idea of a new vodka line with a limited liability company and the Trump name would be used under a licensing agreement, sources told CBS News. It’s not immediately clear whether the deal would come to fruition before his father is inaugurated on January 20.

It comes as a top Trump adviser said it is unrealistic to aim to expel Russian soldiers from every inch of Ukrainian territory.

Trump, who will return as U.S. president on January 20, styles himself as a master dealmaker and has vowed to swiftly end the war in Ukraine but not set out how he might achieve that.