This week, special counsel Jack Smith brought a new charge against Trump for allegedly meddling in the 2020 election.
“A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment today (ECF No. 226), which charged the suspect with the same crimes as the original accusation,” Smith wrote in a filing notice. “The new grand jury that heard the case had not seen any of the old evidence. The superseding charge shows that the government is trying to follow the Supreme Court’s rulings and remand orders in Trump v. United States.”
The Justice Department website says, “If an indictment is thrown out because of a legal flaw or an error in the grand jury, the government may return a fresh indictment within six months of the date of removal or within the original limitation period, whichever comes later. Once the time limit for the first indictment has passed, a superseding indictment can only add to or remove charges from the first accusation.”
The more specific charges are in response to the Supreme Court’s decision last month that presidents are not generally responsible for crimes they commit while in office. The case was then sent back to the lower court to be decided.
The new accusation gets rid of the charge that Trump tried to use the Department of Justice to overturn the election. This is something that the Supreme Court made clear in Trump v. United States.
“Because the President cannot be prosecuted for conduct that is solely within his constitutional power,” the justices wrote, “Trump cannot be prosecuted for the claimed conduct involving his conversations with Justice Department officials.”
Smith said, “The Government does not object to waiving the defendant’s showing for arraignment on the new charge. As the court ordered in ECF No. 197, the government will talk to the defense and, as much as possible, make a joint suggestion in the status report coming Friday about the pre-trial litigation.”
Author: Blake Ambrose
