WASHINGTON (AP) – Special Counsel Jack Smith filed new charges against Donald Trump on Tuesday about his efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election It maintains the same charges against him, but limits the allegations against him after the Supreme Court granted former presidents broad immunity.
The new indictment removes a section of the indictment that accused Trump of attempting to use the Justice Department’s law enforcement powers to overturn his election defeat, an area of conduct for which the Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling last monthsaid Trump was absolutely immune from prosecution.
The scaled-back criminal case is a first attempt by prosecutors to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that will likely result in a significant revision of the charges against Trump for his efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. The case was filed three days before the deadline for prosecutors and defense attorneys to tell the judge how they plan to proceed in light of the ruling, which presumptively gives former presidents immunity from prosecution for official White House acts.
Both sides will return to court next week for a status hearing, the first such appearance in months. as the case has been virtually on hold since last December while Trump’s immunity appeal made its way through the justice system.
In a statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the new charges “an act of desperation” and an “attempt to revive a ‘dead’ witch hunt.” He said the new case has “all the problems of the old charges and should be dropped IMMEDIATELY.”
The special counsel’s office said the updated indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, was issued by a grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case. In a statement, it said the indictment “reflects the government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s rulings and instructions to remand the indictment.”
The key innovation in the new criminal proceedings concerns Trump’s dealings with the Justice Department.
The original indictment included allegations that Trump attempted to manipulate the department in his failed efforts to overturn his election loss. Among other things, the department conducted sham investigations and told states – falsely – that it had found significant voter fraud.
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports that special counsel Jack Smith has filed a new indictment in the Jan. 6 Donald Trump case following an immunity ruling by the Supreme Court last month.
It was described in detail how Jeffrey Clark, a senior official in Trump’s Justice Department, wanted to send a letter to elected officials in certain states falsely claiming that the department had “identified significant concerns that could have affected the outcome of the election” and asked senior department officials for their signatures, but they declined.
Clark’s support for Trump’s claims of election fraud led to Trump openly consider appointing him as acting Attorney General in place of Jeffrey Rosenwho led the department in the final weeks of the Trump administration. Trump eventually abandoned the idea “when he was told it would lead to mass resignations in the Justice Department,” according to the original indictment. Rosen remained acting Attorney General until the end of Trump’s term
In the new case, Clark is no longer mentioned as a co-conspirator. Trump’s co-conspirators were not named in any of the indictments but were identified through public records and other means.
The Supreme Court ruled that the President’s dealings with the Justice Department were official acts for which he was entitled to immunity, effectively rendering these allegations moot in this case.
“As we have explained, the President’s power to remove ‘executive officers of the United States appointed by him’ is neither subject to regulation by Congress nor review by the courts,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.
The judges referred other core allegations in the case back to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the proceedings. She is to determine what constitutes a criminally protected official act – and what does not.
The new indictment still contains one of Smith’s most astonishing allegations: that Trump was involved in a plot orchestrated by allies. to recruit lists of fraudulent electors in swing states The winner was Democrat Joe Biden, who would falsely claim that Trump had won in these states.
She also maintains that Trump tried to put pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to invalidate legitimate electoral votes, and that Trump and his allies took advantage of the chaos at the Capitol on January 6 to further delay the certification of Biden’s victory.
Roberts wrote in his majority opinion that the interactions between Trump and Pence constituted official conduct for which “Trump enjoys at least presumptive immunity from prosecution.”
The question, Roberts wrote, is whether the government can rebut “that presumption of immunity.”
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. In an excerpt from an interview with CBS News’ “Sunday Morning” that aired Tuesday, she said, “I was concerned about a system that seems to grant immunity to an individual under certain circumstances. While we have a criminal justice system that normally treats everyone equally.”
____
Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Lindsay Whitehurst and Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed to this report.
