Special Counsel revises January 6 indictment against Trump following Supreme Court immunity ruling

WASHINGTON (AP) – Special Counsel Jack Smith filed new charges against Donald Trump on Tuesday about his efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election It maintains the same charges against him, but limits the allegations against him after the Supreme Court granted former presidents broad immunity.

The new indictment removes a section of the indictment that accused Trump of attempting to use the Justice Department's law enforcement powers to overturn his election defeat, an area of ​​conduct for which the Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling last monthsaid Trump was absolutely immune from prosecution.

With this scaled-down criminal case, prosecutors are attempting for the first time to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that virtually guaranteed that the Republican presidential candidate would not have to face trial before the November election. He is accused of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

Just a few days later, prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to inform the judge in charge of the case how they plan to proceed in light of the Supreme Court's ruling. According to the ruling, presidents are generally immune from prosecution for official actions of the White House. The Supreme Court has sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who must now analyze which allegations in the indictment were unofficial actions or those that Trump carried out in a private capacity and can be tried in court.

Prosecutors and Trump's legal team will return to court next week for Chutkan's first hearing in months. as the case has been virtually on hold since last December while Trump's immunity appeal made its way through the justice system.

In a statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the new charges “an act of desperation” and an “attempt to revive a 'dead' witch hunt.” He said the new case has “all the problems of the old charges and should be dropped IMMEDIATELY.”

The special counsel's office said the updated indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, was issued by a grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case. In a statement, it said the indictment “reflects the government's efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court's rulings and instructions to remand the indictment.”

The new indictment omits references to allegations that could be considered official acts for which Trump is entitled to immunity in light of the Supreme Court ruling. These include allegations that Trump tried to enlist the Justice Department in his failed attempt to overturn his election defeat, including by conducting sham investigations and telling states – falsely – that significant voter fraud had been found.

In its opinion, the Supreme Court held that the President's dealings with the Justice Department were official acts for which he was entitled to immunity.

The original indictment described in detail how Jeffrey Clark, a senior official in Trump’s Justice Department, wanted to send a letter to elected officials in certain states falsely claiming that the department had “identified significant concerns that may have affected the outcome of the election,” but senior department officials declined to do so.

Clark’s support for Trump’s claims of election fraud led to Trump openly consider appointing him as acting Attorney General in place of Jeffrey Rosenwho led the department in the final weeks of the Trump administration. Trump eventually abandoned the idea “when he was told it would lead to mass resignations in the Justice Department,” the original indictment states. Rosen remained acting attorney general until the end of Trump's term.

The new indictment no longer mentions Clark as a co-conspirator. Trump's alleged co-conspirators were not named in any of the indictments, but the details make their identities clear. The new indictment emphasizes that none of the other co-conspirators “were government officials during the conspiracies and all acted in their private capacities.”

The new indictment also removes references to Trump's communications with government officials – such as senior White House lawyers – who told him there was no evidence of fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 election. It also removes references to certain Trump statements, including a claim he made during a White House press conference two days after the election about a suspicious vote loss in Detroit.

The new indictment still contains one of Smith's most astonishing allegations: that Trump was involved in a plot orchestrated by allies. to recruit lists of fraudulent electors in swing states The winner was Democrat Joe Biden, who would falsely claim that Trump had won in these states.

She also maintains that Trump tried to put pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to invalidate legitimate electoral votes, and that Trump and his allies took advantage of the chaos at the Capitol on January 6 to further delay the certification of Biden's victory.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his majority opinion that the interactions between Trump and Pence constituted official conduct for which “Trump at least presumptively enjoys immunity from prosecution.”

The question, Roberts wrote, is whether the government can rebut “that presumption of immunity.”

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. In an excerpt from an interview with CBS News' “Sunday Morning” that aired Tuesday, she said, “I was concerned about a system that seems to grant immunity to an individual under certain circumstances. While we have a criminal justice system that normally treats everyone equally.”

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Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Lindsay Whitehurst and Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed to this report.