A federal grand jury returned a new indictment against former president Donald Trump Tuesday on four charges for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results following the Supreme Court’s decision to grant Trump presidential immunity for official acts.
The indictment charges Trump with conspiring to defraud the U.S., conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiring against rights, the same charges as the initial indictment against Trump in the election subversion case.
The details of the superseding indictment are slightly altered to remove aspects of the charges that could fall under official acts, such as Trump’s scheming with Justice Department officials and his discussions with cabinet officials about the veracity of his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Those conversations were originally described in detail but have been removed entirely from the new indictment owing to the Supreme Court’s ruling. The Supreme Court explicitly noted Trump’s conversations with Justice Department officials when describing the types of acts that fall under presidential immunity.
Special counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting the case against Trump in Washington, D.C., and sought to get Trump to trial on the election-interference charges as quickly as possible. Trump pleaded not guilty to the Washington, D.C. charges last year and appealed them to the Supreme Court on the basis of presidential immunity. The appeal derailed Smith’s efforts to have Trump stand trial as quickly as possible on the election-interference charges.
The high court granted him immunity for official acts but not for those committed outside the scope of the presidency, a distinction highlighted repeatedly in the language of the superseding indictment, which is nine pages shorter than the original indictment.
The superseding indictment distinguishes Trump’s use of Twitter for “personal purposes” and the “privately-funded, privately-organized” rally on January 6, 2021, that turned into a riot inside and outside the Capitol building. Trump’s apparent conspiring with unnamed co-conspirators to challenge the 2020 election through legal and political means is described throughout the indictment.
At the time, Trump was a presidential candidate and had no control over “any state’s certification of the election results,” the indictment asserts. Trump is the 2024 GOP presidential nominee and often accuses Smith of waging political prosecutions against him.
Smith is also appealing Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the classified-documents case against Trump over her determination that he was unconstitutionally appointed. Cannon’s ruling came after Justice Clarence Thomas suggested questioned the constitutionality of Smith’s appointment in his concurring opinion for the presidential immunity case.
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