The saga of Donald Trump’s legal battles takes a new turn as Federal prosecutors have filed a newly revised indictment against Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The document retains the same four criminal charges against Trump that were originally filed last summer.
However, portions of the new indictment are rewritten to emphasize that Trump was not acting in his official capacity during his efforts to try to overturn the election.
The indictment trimmed away interactions Trump had with the Department of Justice and zeroed in on his role as a political candidate.
As such, the prosecutors’ move does not substantially change the criminal case against Trump but protects it in the wake of a July US supreme court decision ruling saying that he and other Presidents have immunity for official acts, but not unofficial ones.
On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Trump v United States that all “official” presidential acts are entitled to “presumptive immunity” against prosecution.
In the ruling, what counts as “official” acts goes beyond what falls within a President’s constitutional authority, marking a significant widening of executive power.
The court’s decision made explicit reference to the events of January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College vote.
Referring to the indictment directly, the court’s majority pointed to an example where Trump was accused of “attempting to enlist the Vice President” to “alter the election results.”
Since interacting with a Vice President is part of a President’s official duties, the court explained, “Trump is at least presumptively immune from prosecution for such conduct”.
This recalibration serves a dual purpose. On one hand, it narrows the indictment’s scope, concentrating on Trump’s activities as a political candidate rather than his Presidential role.
On the other, it strategically aligns with the Supreme Court’s recent stance that while presidents enjoy immunity for official acts, they are not shielded from prosecution for actions deemed unofficial.
The indictment has been slimmed down from 45 pages to 36, removing the references the Supreme Court singled out in its July decision.
It also emphasises that the interactions detailed in the new version were with people who lie outside of the President’s official orbit.
For his part, Jack Smith — the special counsel appointed to independently lead the Justice Department’s investigations into Trump — said that the newly revamped indictment reflected “the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions”.
Trump Slams Reworked Indictment
The reworked indictment was met with a flurry of reaction from Trump on his Truth Social account.
“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,” Trump wrote.
He said the new version had “all the problems of the old Indictment” and called for it to be “dismissed IMMEDIATELY.”
He has repeatedly denounced the criminal charges against him as an attempt to derail his latest White House bid, an allegation he repeated.
“PERSECUTION OF A POLITICAL OPPONENT!” he wrote in all capital letters in a separate post.
Trump stated that “no Presidential Candidate, or Candidate for any Office, has ever had to put up with all of this Lawfare and Weaponization directly out of the Office of a Political Opponent”.
He added in another post, “What they are doing now is the single greatest sabotage of our Democracy in History.”
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