Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Tuesday ripped special counsel Jack Smith for his superseding indictment against former President Trump, accusing it of being “an effort to influence the election.”
Vance told reporters he had not read the full document, but that “it looks like Jack Smith doing more of what he does, which is filing these lawsuits in an effort to influence the election.”
“The reason the Supreme Court threw out his lawsuit is because they said it implicated the president’s official acts — of course, which the president has immunity in conducting those official acts,” he added.
Smith on Tuesday filed the superseding indictment in his election subversion case against Trump. The filing retained the same charges but struck some elements of the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
The nation’s high court ruled last month that presidents have absolute immunity for actions that fall within the core responsibilities of their office and are “at least presumptively immune” for all other official acts.
The ruling sent the case back to a lower court to reconsider whether Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, merit special protection from criminal prosecution. Smith presented the case to a second grand jury, which had not previously heard the matter. It likewise concluded the charges were warranted against the president.
Vance pointed to the superseding indictment’s reframing of the alleged pressure campaign against then-Vice President Pence.
“And yet, Jack Smith tried to redefine Mike Pence as —from the vice president to the running mate, as if somehow changing those words in an indictment undercuts the fact that Mike Pence is still the sitting vice president, and it still directly implicates the president’s official acts,” Vance told reporters.
The superseding indictment states, “The Defendant [Trump] tried-but failed-to enlist the Vice President, who was also the Defendant’s running mate and, by virtue of the Constitution, the President of the Senate who plays a ceremonial role in the January 6 certification proceeding.”
“The Defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” the indictment reads. “All of the conversations between the Defendant and Vice President described below focused on the Defendant maintaining power.”
It will be up to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to decide whether Trump’s attempts to sway Pence to certify alternate slates of electors stand up to the Supreme Court’s new tests, though the issue could still be appealed back to the Supreme Court.
The Ohio Republican said he does believe anything has “changed” legally, reiterating he thinks it is “clearly an effort to try to do more election interference.”
“He [Jack Smith] should be ashamed of himself and it’s one of the reasons why we have to win, because he should be anywhere near power,” he said.
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for further comment.
