Special counsel Jack Smith is pressing forward with his 2020 election inference case against Donald Trump, with a new indictment that aims to salvage the prosecution after the Supreme Court slammed the door on the possibility of a trial before the Nove.
Special counsel Jack Smith is pressing forward with his 2020 election inference case against Donald Trump, with a new indictment that aims to salvage the prosecution after the Supreme Court slammed the door on the possibility of a trial before the November election.
The new indictment, filed Tuesday in Washington, includes the same criminal charges, but narrows the allegations in an attempt to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.
Here’s what to know about the case and what happens next:
In its ruling last month, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority said former presidents are absolutely immune from prosecution for official acts that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority.”
Furthermore, former presidents are at least presumptively immune for other official actions, the Supreme Court said, but prosecutors can try to make the case that those allegations remain part of the indictment. But former presidents do not enjoy immunity for unofficial, or private, actions, the justices said.
As a result, the Supreme Court said Trump is immune from prosecution for conduct involving his interactions with the Justice Department, effectively stripping those allegations from the indictment. The justices sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to analyze what other allegations could potentially proceed to trial.
In rewriting the indictment now, Smith’s team aims to make that job easier for Chutkan by removing references to allegations it believes could be considered official acts for which Trump could be entitled to immunity.
The new indictment does away with any reference to Trump’s interactions with Justice Department officials, whom prosecutors alleged he tried to enlist in his failed effort to undo his election loss. Prosecutors alleged Trump tried to use the Justice Department to conduct sham election fraud investigations and send a letter to states falsely claiming that significant fraud had been detected.
The new indictment also deletes details about Trump’s communications with certain other federal government officials, like the Director of National Intelligence and senior White House attorneys, who prosecutors say told Trump that his election fraud claims were false.
