Special counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment Tuesday against Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The indictment maintains the same criminal charges but narrows the allegations following a Supreme Court opinion that granted broad immunity to former presidents.
The revised indictment omits a section that previously accused Trump of attempting to use the Justice Department’s law enforcement powers to overturn his election loss. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Trump was immune from prosecution in this area of conduct.
This streamlined criminal case marks the prosecutors’ first attempt to adhere to the Supreme Court’s opinion, which is expected to significantly reshape the allegations against Trump related to his efforts to block the peaceful transfer of power. The new indictment was filed three days before a deadline for Smith’s office to inform the judge on how they intended to proceed in light of the ruling, which stated that former presidents are generally immune from prosecution for official White House acts.
The special counsel’s office indicated that the updated indictment, submitted in federal court in Washington, was issued by a grand jury that had not previously reviewed the case evidence.
The original indictment included claims that Trump attempted to involve the Justice Department in his unsuccessful bid to overturn his election defeat, including conducting sham investigations and falsely informing states that significant fraud had been uncovered.
It detailed how Jeffrey Clark, a senior official in the Trump Justice Department, sought to send a letter to state officials falsely asserting that the department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election” and had requested top department officials to sign it, though they refused.
Clark’s support for Trump’s election fraud claims led Trump to consider appointing him as acting attorney general, replacing Jeffrey Rosen. Trump ultimately abandoned the plan to replace Rosen with Clark when advised that it would lead to mass resignations at the Justice Department. Rosen remained as acting attorney general until the end of the administration.
The new indictment no longer mentions Clark as a co-conspirator. Although Trump’s co-conspirators were unnamed in both indictments, they have been identified through public records and other sources.
The Supreme Court ruled that a president’s interactions with the Justice Department are official acts for which he is entitled to immunity, effectively removing those allegations from the case.
Other allegations, such as Trump’s efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the electoral vote count, have been sent back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to decide what constitutes an official act and what does not.
In writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that the interactions between Trump and Pence were official conduct for which “Trump is at least presumptively immune from prosecution.”
Roberts noted that the key issue is whether the government can challenge “that presumption of immunity.”
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the ruling and, in an interview airing Tuesday with CBS News “Sunday Morning,” expressed concern about a system that appeared to grant immunity to one individual under specific circumstances. She emphasized the importance of a criminal justice system that treats everyone equally.
