“The admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” the report by Special Counsel Jack Smith said.

Smith is “deranged” and his findings are “fake”, Trump said after the report was released.

The 137-page document was sent to Congress after Judge Aileen Cannon cleared the way for the first of two parts of Smith’s report – on the election interference case – to be released.

• Jack Smith resigns from Justice Department
• Trump avoids prison or fine in hush-money case sentencing

She ordered a hearing later in the week on whether to release the part of the report on allegations that Trump illegally kept classified government documents.

The president-elect takes office on 20 January.

The special counsel, Jack Smith, resigned from his post last week.

Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the US Justice Department investigations into Trump. Special counsels are chosen by the department in cases where there is a potential conflict of interest.

Trump was accused of illegally keeping documents and, in some cases, storing them in rooms at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, his residence which he owns. In the interference case, he was accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election result.

Both cases resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who pleaded not guilty and sought to cast the prosecutions as politically motivated.

But Smith closed the cases after Trump’s election in November, in accordance with Justice Department regulations that forbid the prosecution of a sitting president.

Indeed, in the released report, Smith says: “The department’s [of justice] view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind.”

Since then, there’s been a legal back-and-forth over the material related to the cases.

Last week, Judge Cannon put a temporary stop on releasing the whole Smith report, over concerns that it could affect the cases of two Trump associates charged with him in the classified documents case.

Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago , are accused of helping Trump hide the documents.

Unlike Trump’s, their cases are still pending – and their lawyers argued that the release of Smith’s report could prejudice a future jury and trial.

CBS News reported in November that Smith would resign from the Justice Department after completing his work.

Mr Smith’s departure comes amid a dispute over the release of his report into the findings of Trump’s classified documents case.

Mr Smith was appointed as special counsel in 2022 to oversee two Justice Department cases into Trump – one over the alleged improper hoarding of classified documents and the other over an alleged attempt to interfere in the 2020 election outcome.

Both cases resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who pleaded not guilty and and sought to cast the prosecutions as politically motivated.

Mr Smith’s cases against the president-elect were closed last year following Trump’s presidential election win. Prosecutors wrote that Justice Department regulations forbid the prosecution of a sitting president.

CBS reported in November that Mr Smith’s resignation was expected as it would allow him to leave his post without being fired by Trump or the incoming president’s attorney general.

His exit means he leaves without either of his criminal prosecutions of Trump seeing trial.

Earlier this week, US District Judge Aileen Cannon – who oversaw the classified documents case and controversially dismissed it last July – temporarily barred Mr Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting” the report about the case.

Trump’s legal team received a draft copy of the report last weekend and it was expected to be released as soon as Friday.

The move by Judge Cannon came after attorneys for Trump’s former co-defendants in the case – Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveir – called on her to intervene. Both men had pleaded not guilty.

Judge Cannon ordered the release be put on hold until a higher appeals court, the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, considered an emergency appeal from Mr Nauta and Mr De Oliveir.

By law, special counsels must present the findings of their investigations to the Justice Department, which is headed by the attorney general. Garland has promised to release all reports to the public and has so far done so.

Trump’s attorneys argued that Mr Smith did not have the legal authority to submit the classified documents report because he was unconstitutionally picked to do the job and was politically motivated.

Trump’s legal team also wrote to Garland not to release the report, and urged him to end the “weaponisation of the justice system”.

On Friday, a judge sentenced Trump to an “unconditional discharge” in a criminal case related to hush money payments, meaning he has been spared jail and a fine, but he will still take office as the first US president with a felony conviction.

Jack Smith led two probes into Trump, one on alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and another on his apparent mishandling of classified documents.

Both cases have been shelved, but Mr Smith’s detailed report was due to be released in the coming days.

But in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Trump’s lawyers have urged him to end the “weaponisation of the justice system” and hand the report to them.

The correspondence alleges Mr Smith did not have the legal authority to submit the report because he was unconstitutionally picked to do the job and was politically motivated. Mr Smith is yet to publicly respond.

Trump’s legal team received a draft copy of the report at the weekend.The two investigations led to criminal indictments against Trump but both have since been dismissed, partly due to a longstanding DoJ policy not to prosecute a sitting president.The former president had pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.

Federal regulations decree that any special counsel probe must conclude with a report to the justice department and Garland has previously said he would release all such reports.

During his time away from the White House, Trump faced an array of legal cases, which were successfully delayed and thwarted by his lawyers and allies.

The administration of the Democratic president, Joe Biden, faced accusations from Trump’s opponents that they brought cases against the Republican too slowly, while Trump’s supporters argued that the prosecutions were politically motivated.

One of Mr Smith’s two cases concerned Trump’s attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.

Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the case ended up in legal limbo after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump was partially immune from criminal prosecution over official acts committed while in office.

Mr Smith later refiled his case, but wound it down after Trump’s 2024 election win.

He was also leading a case against Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House following his first presidency – charges that Trump also denied.

This case faced a roadblock of its own when the Trump-appointed judge dismissed the charges, arguing Mr Smith was improperly appointed to lead the case. Again, Mr Smith hit back – this time with an appeal – but later abandoned this, too.

DoJ guidance prevents the criminal prosecution of a sitting president. Mr Smith clarified that this legal protection also applied to the prosecution of a private citizen who was subsequently elected president.

The news was celebrated by the Trump campaign, which hailed it as a “major victory for the rule of law”.Mr Smith is also reportedly expected to leave his job before Trump returns to the White House on 20 January and carries out a threat of sacking him.

Despite his recent legal wins, Trump still faces sentencing on Friday after being found guilty in New York last year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments made to a porn star.

With less than two weeks until Trump is re-inaugurated as US president, the judge has refused a request to delay, although he has previously made clear he will not consider giving Trump a custodial term.