Special counsel Jack Smith filed a so-called superseding indictment against Donald Trump yesterday in which he again accused Trump of resisting the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election. Smith narrowed the allegations after the corrupted Supreme Court ruled that presidential immunity extended to, well, almost everything. Via CBS News:
The new 36-page charging document is based on a more refined set of allegedly criminal acts after the Supreme Court ruled Trump was immune from prosecution for some of the conduct included in Smith’s original 45-page indictment returned last year.
Prosecutors maintained the four counts against Trump that he previously faced — including conspiracy to defraud the United States — but limited the evidence included in the indictment and even removed one unnamed individual from a list of unindicted co-conspirators. The original indictment described that person as “a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.” It was believed to be Jeffrey Clark, who led the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and later served as acting head of the Civil Division.
Reacting to the new indictment on social media, Clark said the Supreme Court’s July decision “vindicates” his decision to not cooperate with Smith’s investigation and accused prosecutors of targeting Trump.
Smith and his team said a federal grand jury in Washington returned the superseding indictment Tuesday. Prosecutors said they did not oppose waiving Trump’s appearance at an arraignment on the new charging document.
