FELONY CHARGES IN TRUMP'S ATTEMPTED COUP CASE ARE DROPPED

NBC News - Special counsel Jack Smith has filed a motion to drop all four felony charges against President-elect Donald Trump in connection with his effort to overturn his 2020 presidential election in the lead-up to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol. Trump was first indicted on four felonies in August 2023: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. The case was then put on hold for months as Trump’s team argued that Trump could not be prosecuted.

The indictment marked an extraordinary moment in American history — the first-ever accusation that a president sought illegally to cling to power. The dismissal also marks a historic moment. Fifty years after Richard Nixon was forced by lawmakers from both parties to resign the presidency amid allegations of criminal conduct, half of American voters will return Trump to the presidency despite his own serious charges of criminal misconduct in office.

Newsweek - Special counsel Jack Smith plans to release his final report on the federal investigations into former President Donald Trump before Inauguration Day on January 20, according to a CNN report citing a source close to the matter. The report is expected to detail Smith's findings on key cases involving Trump, including allegations of election subversion and mishandling of classified documents. Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to publicly release the special counsel report.

What happened on Jan 6

Wikipedia:  -  On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of, at the time, the 45th U.S. president Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup d'état, two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. They sought to keep him in power by preventing a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes to formalize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The attack was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the certification of the election results. According to the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election. Within 36 hours, five people died: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes, including a police officer who died of natural causes a day after being assaulted by rioters. Many people were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. Damage caused by attackers exceeded $2.7 million.

Encouraged by Trump, on January 5 and 6, thousands of his supporters gathered in Washington, D.C., to support his false claims that the 2020 election had been "stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats"  and to demand that then-Vice President Mike Pence and Congress reject Biden's victory. Starting at noon on January 6 at a "Save America" rally on the Ellipse, Trump gave a speech in which he repeated false claims of election irregularities and said, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." As Congress began the electoral vote count, thousands of attendees, some armed, walked to the Capitol, and hundreds breached police perimeters. Among the rioters were leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia groups.

The FBI estimates that between 2,000 and 2,500 people entered the Capitol Building during the attack, some of whom participated in vandalism and looting, including in the offices of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Congress members.Rioters also assaulted Capitol Police officers and reporters, and attempted to capture and harm lawmakers. A gallows was erected west of the Capitol, with rioters chanting to "Hang Mike Pence" after he rejected calls to overturn the election results. With building security breached, Capitol Police evacuated and locked down both chambers of Congress and several buildings in the Complex Rioters occupied the empty Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers defended the evacuated House floor. Pipe bombs were found at both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters, and Molotov cocktails were discovered in a vehicle near the Capitol.^] Trump resisted sending the National Guard to quell the mob. Later that afternoon in a Twitter video, he restated false claims about the election and told his supporters to "go home in peace". The Capitol was cleared of rioters by mid-evening, and the electoral vote count was resumed and completed by the early morning of January 7. Pence declared President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris victorious. Pressured by his cabinet, the threat of removal, and many resignations, Trump later conceded to an orderly transition of power in a televised statement.

A week after the attack, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection, making him the only U.S. president to be impeached twice In February, after Trump had left office, the Senate voted 57–43 in favor of conviction, but fell short of the required two-thirds, resulting in his acquittal. Senate Republicans blocked a bill to create a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack, so the House instead approved a select investigation committee. They held nine televised public hearings on the attack, voted to subpoena Trump,^[87] and recommended that the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecute him. On August 1, 2023, following a special counsel investigation, Trump was indicted on four charges.^[As of May 6, 2024, of the 1,424 people charged with federal crimes relating to the event, 820 have pleaded guilty (255 to felonies and 565 to misdemeanors), and 884 defendants have been sentenced, 541 of whom received a jail sentence. Some participants in the attack were linked to far-right extremist groups or conspiratorial movements, including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters, some of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy Enrique Tarrio, then the chairman of the Proud Boys, received the longest sentence, a 22-year prison term. Trump and elected Republican officials have since promoted a revisionist history of the event by downplaying the severity of the violence, spreading conspiracy theories, and portraying those charged with crimes as hostages and martyrs.