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Prosecutors on Tuesday filed a revised indictment of Donald Trump, pressing ahead with bombshell charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 US election after losing to Joe Biden.
The superseding indictment retains the same four charges against Trump as in an earlier version but takes into account a recent Supreme Court ruling that a former president has broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
The new indictment of the 78-year-old Republican White House candidate is 36 pages long, down from 45 pages previously, and removes material affected by the immunity ruling from the conservative-dominated top court.
It retains the same core, stating that Trump lost in 2020 but “was determined to remain in power” and attempted to subvert the results.
The Supreme Court ruled in July that an ex-president has broad immunity from prosecution for official acts conducted while in office, but can be pursued for unofficial acts.
This threw into doubt the historic prosecution of the ex-president.
Trump referred to the new indictment as an “act of desperation” that was part of a “witch hunt” against him.
“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,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
The new indictment comes three days before Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges against Trump, and lawyers for the former president had been scheduled to file a schedule for pre-trial proceedings.
