Prosecutors receive a new indictment against Trump that respects the principle of immunity | USA Elections

Slowly but surely, the machinery of justice keeps turning. Special prosecutor Jack Smith has obtained another grand jury to indict Donald Trump again for four alleged crimes in a Washington federal case for interfering with the outcome of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. The new indictment, for the same four crimes, is limited to what the prosecutor believes are not official acts covered by the broad immunity that the Supreme Court granted Trump after his appeal against the initial indictment.

The new indictment appears in a 36-page document registered before the court this Tuesday, which removes some aspects of the original 45 pages. For example, former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark disappears as an unnamed and unidentified co-conspirator in the case. The Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s conversations with Justice Department officials were protected from prosecution by presidential immunity and not everything related to Trump’s conversations to mobilize the department in support of his theories is included in the new indictment.

The allegations are that Trump tried to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the electoral vote count. The Supreme Court’s ruling established that the conversation between Trump and Pence amounted to official conduct for which “Trump enjoys at least immunity from impeachment,” but impeachment could undermine the “presumption of immunity.”

“The substitution of the indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case, reflects the government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s rulings and remand instructions in Trump v. United States of America,” indicates a document registered by the prosecutor before the court of the person in charge of the case, Tanya Chutkan.

Trump’s defense will likely oppose this new charge and dispute the thesis that he respected the criteria set forth by the Supreme Court in its July 1 ruling. The prosecutor believes that actions such as pressuring state officials to spread false claims of electoral fraud and attempts to change the result in several states do not fall under the Supreme Court’s immunity doctrine because they are not related to the president’s responsibilities.

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The prosecutor again charged the former president with four crimes: conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy to violate civil rights. Trump says the election was stolen from him, but the prosecutor does not accuse him of this massive baseless fraud, but rather of his actions to change the result and prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Regarding the first charge, the new document moves forward by one day the date on which prosecutors believe Trump’s plot to stay in office began, to November 13, 2020.

Special prosecutor Jack Smith reactivated the election interference charge a day after appealing the filing of the second Mar-a-Lago Papers case. In the latter, Trump is charged with dozens of crimes, including concealing defense secrets and obstruction of justice for taking classified documents while leaving the White House. Both cases are moving slowly and, depending on the Justice Department, Trump could have the charges dismissed upon returning to the White House. Another case against the former president is pending in Georgia, which is also on hold in part for his efforts to steal the election in that state.

His defense’s legal maneuverings have been working to delay the trials against the former president, except for the New York case, where a jury found him guilty of 34 crimes and he is awaiting sentencing – which has also managed to be delayed thanks to a Supreme Court ruling.

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