Aug. 27 (UPI) — In response to a Supreme Court ruling granting broad immunity to presidents for official acts, special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday filed a new federal indictment against former President Donald Trump in the Jan. 6 case involving riots at the U.S. Capitol more than three years ago.
The filing, which accuses Trump of leading a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, comes just 10 days before the Justice Department’s “60-day rule” would have taken effect and banned the filing of new charges against the Republican nominee for president.
In Tuesday’s new 36-page indictment, which has been reduced from the original 45 pages, Smith removed allegations that the Supreme Court determined were wrongly filed.
Trump is no longer charged with trying to force election fraud investigations on the Justice Department or urging state lawmakers to choose fraudulent electors. Those interactions are immune from prosecution because they are considered official presidential acts.
While prosecutors did not drop the four initial charges from the new indictment, they added more language that describes Trump as a “candidate,” and not president, while describing others as “acting in their private capacity” and not “government officials.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His legal team argues the former president was conducting legitimate inquiries about the possibility of election fraud. Throughout his current campaign, Trump has repeatedly claimed he is the victim of a government conspiracy to weaponize the law against him.
Last month, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that a president is absolutely immune when executing his core constitutional powers and enjoys the presumption of immunity when performing official acts.
With Smith’s revised indictment, a new grand jury will hear the case.
“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 in Trump v. United States,” the special counsel’s office said.
Shortly after the indictment was filed Tuesday, Trump responded in a post on Truth Social, claiming Smith was trying to “interfere with the election.”
“In an effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ witch hunt in Washington, D.C., in an act of desperation, and in order to save face, 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,” the former president wrote.
Trump will not be required to make an in-person appearance for arraignment on the new indictment. In addition, the current case will not be tried before November’s election. If elected, Trump could use executive authority to end the federal proceedings against him.
