The Daily Populous Wednesday August 28th, 2024 morning edition
Authored by abcnews.go.com and submitted by RoachedCoach

Special counsel Jack Smith has charged former President Donald Trump in a superseding indictment in his federal election interference case that charges him with the same offenses in the original indictment, but is adjusted to the Supreme Court's recent presidential immunity ruling.

"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," a Justice Department spokesperson said Tuesday.

Trump last August pleaded not guilty to federal charges of undertaking a "criminal scheme" to overturn the results of the 2020 election to remain in power. Last month, in a blockbuster decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office, and sent the case back to the trial court to sort out which charges against him can stand.

In a separate filing Tuesday, the special counsel said he does not oppose waiving Trump's appearance for an arraignment on the superseding indictment.

While the original indictment laid out five ways Trump allegedly obstructed the function of the federal government -- having state election officials change electoral votes, arranging fraudulent slates of electors, using the Department of Justice to conduct "sham" investigations, enlisting the Vice President to obstruct the certification of the election, and exploiting the chaos of the Jan. 6 riot -- the new indictment removes mention of his use of the Department of Justice, which was explicitly mentioned in the Supreme Court's ruling as falling within his official duties.

While the original indictment mentions the Justice Department on over 30 occasions, the new indictment makes no mention of the DOJ.

It also reframes the portion of the original indictment outlining that Trump allegedly knew his claims of election fraud were false.

Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump greets the crowd before speaking during the National Guard Association of the United States' 146th General Conference & Exhibition, Aug. 26, 2024, in Detroit. Emily Elconin/Getty Images

The original indictment included how multiple federal officials -- including the vice president, members of the Department of Justice, the Director of National Intelligence, and several White House attorneys -- notified Trump that his claims about the election were false. The superseding indictment removes most of those mentions, saying, "The Defendant was on notice that his claims were untrue. He was told so by those most invested in his re-election, including his own running mate and his campaign staff."

"The defendant used his campaign to repeat and widely disseminate them anyway, to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger and erode public faith in the administration of the election," says the new indictment, adding that those aiding Trump were "acting in a private capacity" and that none of them "were government officials during the conspiracies."

In multiple places, Smith's new indictment adds clarifying language to state when he believes Trump was clearly acting outside of his official duties, saying, for instance, that Trump "had no official responsibilities related to any state's certification of the election results" and highlighting when Trump was allegedly acting "not as President but in his capacity as a candidate for office."

The superseding indictment also removes key allegations about Trump’s refusal to act as rioters stormed the Capitol.

The new indictment no longer includes allegations that Trump refused advisers’ requests to send a message calling off rioters and that Trump later refused to withdraw his objections to the certification despite the plea of his White House counsel.

The new indictment is 36 pages, while the original indictment was 45.

It comes just days after Smith, in a filing, urged the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a federal judge's surprise dismissal of Trump's classified documents case, which Smith is also overseeing.

eurocomments247 on August 27th, 2024 at 21:02 UTC »

This "immunity" bullshit.

How can it be Trump's "official" duty to cancel the election through the Justice Dpt. because he lost? It's obvious criminal behaviour.

gnjoey on August 27th, 2024 at 20:37 UTC »

Jack Motherfucking Smith! Let's fucking go!

RoachedCoach on August 27th, 2024 at 20:16 UTC »

For anyone that wants to read it directly:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149.226.0_36.pdf

Some key points:

Jack Smith's team says that the superseding indictment was "presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case," which separately charged Trump with the same crimes.

Rather than go through the evidentiary hearing in DC, Jack Smith goes back to a grand jury and gets a superseding indictment based on what it believes satisfies the Supreme Court immunity decision. This resets the case, requires a new arraignment, and Court process.

The news is an entirely new grand jury decided to re-indict Trump on the same election subversion counts without seeing the evidence that the Supreme Court barred from consideration—i.e. the DOJ corruption stuff and any other conspiring with federal officials.

Jack Smith added "private" to all of the co-conspirators, to highlight their clearly non-official roles — and got rid of Jeffrey Clark, the DOJ guy who was willing to be acting AG and pursue Trump's fake election fraud claims if Trump let him.

Judge Tanya Chutkan remains the judge on the case

Trump Responds: https://twitter.com/ArtCandee/status/1828549086464671818