Special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday filed a superseding indictment in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump, slimming down the allegations against the 2024 presidential nominee in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
Prosecutors have not dropped any of the four charges that they initially brought against the former president. However, the newly retooled indictment has carved out some of Trump’s alleged conduct, including allegations about the attempts to use the Justice Department to promote his false claims of election fraud.
It also adjusts how prosecutors describe the allegations they are continuing to bring about Trump’s election subversion schemes.
“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions in Trump v. United States,” the special counsel’s office said.
The replacement indictment thrusts the question of Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election back into the critical final months of the 2024 campaign. For much of this year, the ex-president’s legal and political narratives merged through his claims that he was the victim of a conspiracy by the Biden administration to weaponize justice against him.
But the Trump legal team’s success in using the appeals process to delay most of his trials – or in the case of charges related to his mishandling of classified documents, have it dismissed entirely – and the transformation of the race with new Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has recently overshadowed the ex-president’s legal woes.
Smith’s determination to rescue his case after the Supreme Court immunity ruling underscores the huge personal stake that Trump has in winning in November and reacquiring the executive authority that would allow him to end federal proceedings against him.
According to a source familiar, the Trump defense team expected a rewriting of the indictment like this to set up the next phase of the case after the high court’s ruling. A hearing on the case was already scheduled in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s courtroom for next Thursday. But the superseding indictment coming so soon was a surprise.
On Truth Social, Trump blasted Smith and the case against him: “In an effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ Witch Hunt in Washington, D.C., in an act of desperation, and in order to save face, the illegally appointed ‘Special Counsel’ Deranged Jack Smith, has brought a ridiculous new Indictment against me, which has all the problems of the old Indictment, and should be dismissed IMMEDIATELY.”
In the reworked indictment, prosecutors argue several times that Trump didn’t have any constitutionally assigned presidential duties regarding the post-election transition of power.
They did this to highlight how the new indictment comports with the Supreme Court ruling, which granted immunity for some of Trump’s conduct that falls within his official powers.
Importantly, the superseding indictment cuts language about the former president’s interactions with senior Justice Department officials and adds language describing when Trump was acting as a candidate and not the president.
“The Defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” the superseding indictment says, in a line that wasn’t in the original indictment.
In several instances, prosecutors repeatedly added language describing Trump as a “candidate,” and descriptions of his alleged co-conspirators as individuals who were not “government officials during the conspiracies” and were instead “acting in their private capacity.”
In another section, the special counsel’s office described a lawsuit that Trump’s campaign filed regarding the results in Georgia, which he narrowly lost. The old indictment said the lawsuit was “filed in his name,” but the reworked indictment says it was “filed in his capacity as a candidate for President.”
Smith’s team also emphasized their contention that then-Vice President Mike Pence was acting in a “ceremonial role” as president of the Senate when he presided over the Electoral College certification proceedings on January 6, 2021. The distinction is important because prosecutors are arguing that Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence was outside the scope of his official duties.
In addition, prosecutors cut references to Co-Conspirator 4. CNN has identified that person as then-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who allegedly sought to use his position to aid Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Casey Gannon contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional details.
ebostic94 on August 28th, 2024 at 00:11 UTC »
This was a brand new grand jury and yet they still indicted him. The evidence that was shown must be very, very bad for Trump.
Yousoggyyojimbo on August 27th, 2024 at 22:53 UTC »
Just a refresher for people, since I'm sure there's going to be arguments about this in the comments, but here is a basic summary and some interesting bits from this case.
Donald Trump engaged in a conspiracy with several of his people to coordinate and set up a slate of fake electors that they were planning to have be accepted in place of the actual electors during the certification, to have him declared the winner despite having lost the election.
This involved coordination with many Republican party officials across several states to coordinate. It was also known to people like senator Ron Johnson.
This plot was discussed in intimate detail in text and email messages from Trump's team. They were even witnessed openly discussing it at the White House by his chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
To assist in covering for the plan, Donald Trump approached his attorney general and tried to get him to declare that the election was fraudulent without any evidence. His attorney general refused, telling him that the election wasn't fraudulent and that he wouldn't do that. Trump insisted and urged him that he just had to declare it and that he and Congress would take care of the rest.
When the attorney general that did not agree to do this, not one of Donald Trump's co-conspirators attempted to fire the attorney general and deputy attorney general for Trump, with the intent that he would then be made the acting attorney general and would then enact that part of the plan. The attorney general and deputy attorney general essentially told that guy to pound sand and that if Trump wanted to fire them, he needed to do it himself.
Mike Pence was asked directly to participate in the conspiracy by refusing to certify the election with the correct and valid electors and instead accept the fake electors. This essentially stopped the plan in its tracks and the hail Mary after that. Was hoping that the violence from January 6th could delay the certification or cause enough chaos to create some new option.
So in short, had an open criminal conspiracy, did not keep the criminal conspiracy under tight wraps, and his own vice president, Chief of staff, attorney general, and deputy attorney general have all given statements against him and verified that he did indeed commit these crimes or asked them to commit crimes in furtherance of the plot.
austin101123 on August 27th, 2024 at 22:42 UTC »
TL;DR: It's an updated indictment in light of the supreme court ruling presidents have immunity for official duties. Arguing:
The indictment is shorter with some stuff cut out, including no mentions of the justice department anymore (before, there were 30).