'Evidence was there to convict': CNN panel breaks down 'shocking' Jack Smith report

A CNN panel on Tuesday argued that former special counsel Jack Smith's report on President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election showed that he had enough evidence to put Trump in prison.

CNN's Stephen Collinson kicked off the panel by connecting the alleged criminal actions outlined in the report — released in the early hours of Tuesday — to the anxiety and fear many Americans feel about Trump returning to power.

"It's sobering when you think that the person who allegedly committed these acts will next week swear an oath to uphold the Constitution," he said. "Just because we knew a lot of this stuff, we've seen it play out many times, it doesn't mean it's any less shocking. And while I think millions of Trump's supporters are justified in being jubilant that he will return to power next week, this explains why so many people will see this as a moment of fear and trepidation."

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Former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams took stock of the facts outlined in Smith's report and concluded that the former special prosecutor had Trump nailed.

"I mean, it's clear that regardless of what anyone thinks of Jack Smith or Donald Trump, evidence was there to convict on any number of offenses, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding," he said.

Later in the panel, analyst Kate Bedingfield argued that it was important for the public to have the information contained in Smith's report even though it turned out not to have mattered much to voters in the 2024 presidential race.

"He will be president for four years," she said. "He will have access to the levers of power that could potentially allow him to do something like this again. So it is it is important that this information be out in the public record, be laid out and detailed in this way when we're potentially looking at the possibility of Trump, you know, committing these kinds of acts again."

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