The 130-page document, authored by special counsel Jack Smith, was published today following the expiration of a court order blocking its release.

It is the first of two volumes, the second of which will not be published, written following Mr Smith’s appointment to investigate the events surrounding 6 January 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in a bid to prevent Biden being officially certified as the winner.

It alleges that Mr Trump sought to “unlawfully retain power by using fraud and deceit” and details how he allegedly applied pressure to state officials and his vice-president, Mike Pence, and devised a plan involving “fraudulent electors”, as well as his responsibility for the storming of the Capitol.

A bid to federally prosecute Mr Trump for election subversion and the mishandling of classified documents was abandoned after he won the 2024 presidential election.

Mr Smith’s report reiterates that the US Constitution’s ban on the indictment and prosecution of a sitting 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”.

“Indeed, but for Mr Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, [prosecutors] assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” it states.

Mr Trump previously claimed that he had been exonerated by the decision to drop the prosecution. A private letter written by Mr Smith and released alongside the report states that this is “false”.

His second presidency will begin on Monday 20 January 2025.