Updated indictment filed against Trump over 2020 election

Michael Macagnone | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Washington on Tuesday returned a slimmed-down indictment of Donald Trump for the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, removing a portion of the allegations that the Supreme Court ruled could not be charged.

Special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith’s newest filing comes as the D.C.-based case against the former president enters a new phase that is almost guaranteed to last until after this fall’s election.

The superseding indictment kept the same four charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding.

But the new indictment excised allegations that Trump sought to enlist Justice Department and White House officials in his effort to overturn his loss.

It also no longer references Trump’s communications with White House officials and staff about his alleged lies about the election, or refers to “co-conspirator 4,” widely reported to be former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark.

Overall, the new indictment is nine pages shorter than the one unveiled last year.

Although the indictment removed some allegations, it also placed new emphasis on Trump’s use of his public persona outside of the Oval Office, such as his Twitter account and campaign rally on Jan. 6, 2021.

The indictment still contains many of the allegations around Trump’s wide-ranging scheme to overturn the election. That includes his calls to state officials in an attempt to have vote-counting stopped, an effort to present false slates of presidential electors and his effort to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject the electoral votes of states Trump lost.

A 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court last month gave presidents “absolute immunity” from federal prosecution at the “core” of their constitutional duties and possible lesser immunity for acts outside that core.

That decision, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., explicitly said Trump could not be prosecuted for his alleged collusion with DOJ officials.

“The indictment’s allegations that the requested investigations were “sham(s)” or proposed for an improper purpose do not divest the President of exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials,” the opinion said.

In the decision, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote separately to say some of those allegations may fall outside Trump’s newfound immunity. She explicitly mentioned Trump’s efforts to organize false slates of electors and encourage Pence to reject votes from states Trump lost as allegations that could be charged.

“In my view, that conduct is private and therefore not immune,” Barrett wrote in a footnote.

Smith also faces a Friday deadline in the Washington case to file a plan for how to move forward with the case. Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also set a hearing for next Friday about the future of the case.

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