SCOTUS NEWS

Special Counsel Jack Smith revises indictment against Trump

Just under two months after a divided Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for their conduct in office, Special Counsel Jack Smith charged former President Donald Trump in a revised indictment alleging that Trump conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The court’s July 1 ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that former presidents can never be prosecuted for actions related to the core powers of their office. Moreover, the majority added, there is at least a presumption that a former president also cannot be prosecuted for any other official acts.

The 36-page revised indictment, released on Tuesday afternoon, responds to the court’s ruling last month. Like the original 45-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Aug. 1, 2023, it charges Trump with four different violations of federal criminal law – conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The Roberts decision made clear that Trump could not be prosecuted for his efforts to use the Department of Justice to influence state officials to replace legitimate electoral votes with fraudulent ones. The revised indictment omits allegations, spanning several pages in the original indictment, relating to those efforts.

But the Roberts decision left the task of determining whether other conduct outlined in the indictment fell within Trump’s official responsibilities to the lower courts. The revised indictment repeatedly highlights conduct that, prosecutors contend, did not fall within those responsibilities – describing, for example, how Trump “had no official responsibilities related to any state’s certification of the election results” and “no official responsibilities related to the convening of legitimate electors or their signing and mailing of their certificates of vote.” In describing Trump’s co-conspirators, the revised indictment also stresses that “none” of them “were government officials” and all “were acting in a private capacity.”

Trump’s trial in Washington was originally scheduled for March 4, 2024, but it was put on hold while Trump appealed rulings by Judge Tanya Chutkan and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denying his bid for immunity. A new trial date has not yet been set, but the trial is not expected to begin before the November elections.

This article was originally published at Howe on the Court.