Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the National Guard Association’s 146th Convention and Exhibition at the Huntington Convention Center in Detroit, Michigan, August 26, 2024.
Emily Erkonen | Getty Images
The federal grand jury returned Tuesday superseding indictment Accusation of former president Donald Trump The same crimes he originally faced in a criminal election interference case in Washington, D.C.
The new indictments were filed to comply with a recent guidance supreme court decision Special counsel Jack Smith said in a separate statement that the former president was given “presumptive immunity” for official actions while in office. court filing.
Like the original charging document filed in August 2023, the newly filed superseding indictment charges Trump with four counts related to his alleged illegal overturning of a loss to the president. Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
But the new indictment is nine pages shorter, redacting extensive details of Trump’s conversations with Justice Department officials after the 2020 election that the Supreme Court said fell under presidential immunity.
They include meetings between Trump and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, named “Co-conspirator 4” in the original indictment.
Tuesday’s indictment redacted all mention of Clark, who was deeply involved in many of the alleged conspiracies challenging Trump’s loss to Biden.
Trump still faces one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy to violate rights.
Smith said in a court filing Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that the superseding indictment was presented to a new grand jury that has never before heard evidence in a criminal case against the Republican presidential nominee.
The document adds that the Justice Department has no objection to Trump abstaining from appearing at his arraignment on the new indictment.
A source familiar with the thinking of Trump’s defense team told NBC News that the amended indictment still contains the “fatal flaws” of the original indictment.
“You can’t prosecute a president for actions he committed while in office,” the source told NBC. “We don’t think they can prove that it was all purely campaign-related,” he added.
The case, which largely revolves around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, is widely considered one of the most serious of the four criminal cases Trump faces during his re-election campaign.
But Smith’s case was stalled for months while Trump’s lawyers pursued their argument that Smith was immune from the charges because he was president when the alleged conduct occurred.
The Supreme Court accepted the dispute. In a July 1 ruling, the court ruled that the former president enjoyed “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for certain executive actions and “constructive immunity” for all other official actions, but was criticized by three liberals. The judge strongly disagreed. The court also held that the president is not immune from the effects of unofficial conduct.
The ruling made specific decisions on the election claims against Trump, some of which effectively ended parts of Smith’s case.
For example, the high court held that “Trump will never be prosecuted for conduct allegedly discussed with Justice Department officials.”
The court also ordered District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to evaluate whether Trump allegedly tried to pressure the then-Vice President Mike Pence Rejection of the 2020 election results “would risk any infringement of the powers and functions of the executive branch.”
