CNN
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Special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday filed an additional indictment in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump, dropping charges against the 2024 presidential candidate in light of the Supreme Court’s impeachment ruling.
Prosecutors did not drop any of the four charges originally brought against the former president. However, the newly redrafted indictment does carve out some of Trump’s alleged conduct, including allegations of efforts to use the Justice Department to publicize his false claims of election fraud.
It also adjusts how prosecutors describe the allegations they continue to bring about Trump’s election-disruption plans.
“The violation indictment, presented to a new grand jury that has never heard testimony before in this case, reflects the government’s efforts to respect and enforce the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand orders in Trump v. United States,” the special counsel’s office said. He said.
The alternative charge raises the question of Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election again in the crucial final months of the 2024 campaign. For much of this year, the former president’s legal and political narratives have been united by his claims that he was the victim of a conspiracy by the Biden administration to weaponize justice against him.
But the victory by Trump’s legal team has delayed most of his investigations using the appeals process — or dismissed it entirely, in the case of allegations related to his mishandling of classified documents — and shifted the race to Vice President Kamala, the new Democratic nominee. Harris recently covered up the former president’s legal problems.
Smith’s determination to defend his case after the Supreme Court’s exception ruling underscores his huge personal role in helping Trump win in November and regain executive power to end federal actions against him.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the Trump defense team expects to rewrite such an indictment to set up the next phase of the case after the high court’s ruling. A hearing on the case was already scheduled for next Thursday in the court of Justice Tanya Sudkan. But the soon-to-come violation charge came as a surprise.
In the reworked indictment, attorneys repeatedly argue that Trump has no constitutionally assigned presidential duties regarding the post-election transition of power.
They did so to highlight how the new indictment is consistent with a Supreme Court ruling that exempted some of Trump’s conduct that falls within his official powers.
Importantly, the amended indictment cuts language about the former president’s contacts with senior Justice Department officials and adds language describing when Trump acted as a candidate and not as president.
“The defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification process, but he had a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” the superseded indictment said, in a line not included in the original indictment.
On several occasions, the lawyers included repeated language describing Trump as a “candidate” and descriptions of his alleged co-conspirators who were not “government officials during the conspiracies” but “acting in their individual capacities.”
In another segment, the special counsel’s office described a lawsuit Trump’s campaign filed in Georgia, which he narrowly lost. The old indictment said the case was “filed in his name,” but the reworked indictment said it was “filed in his capacity as a presidential candidate.”
Smith’s team also emphasized their contention that then-Vice President Mike Pence acted in a “ceremonial role” as president of the Senate when he presided over Electoral College certification proceedings on January 6, 2021. As advocates argue, the distinction is important. Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence was outside of his official duties.
Additionally, prosecutors cut references to co-conspirator 4. CNN identified the man as then-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clarke, who allegedly tried to use his position to help Trump’s efforts to rig the 2020 election.
Trump admitted to the allegations against him.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Casey Cannon contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional details.
