Special prosecutor Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment on Tuesday (27) against former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021), in the case regarding alleged attempts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 presidential election that is being processed in Federal Court in Washington.
According to CNN, the new allegations were filed in response to a decision in early July by the United States Supreme Court, which granted partial immunity to current and former American presidents.
The highest court in the US judiciary has ruled that current or former occupants of the highest executive office in the United States can claim immunity for “official acts” performed during their terms in office. It will be up to lower court judges to decide what constitutes “official acts” by a president or not.
The complaint filed by Smith on Tuesday does not drop any of the four charges that the prosecutor had previously filed against Trump. The reworded complaint aims to clarify that the former president’s conduct was not official acts and therefore the Republican could still be prosecuted for them.
“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s rulings and pretrial detention instructions in Trump v. United States,” the special counsel’s office said.
An excerpt mentions that in the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in a joint session of the US Congress on January 6, 2021, when the invasion of the Capitol took place, there was an attempt by Trump to interfere, but not as an official act.
“The defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification process, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” the new protocol states.
According to CNN, the new allegations also cite alleged attempts by Trump to use the Justice Department to promote claims that voter fraud occurred and that a lawsuit his campaign team filed regarding the results in Georgia, where he was defeated by Biden, was “filed in his capacity as a candidate for president,” and not as head of state and government.
The Washington case of alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election defeat is one of four criminal cases that have been opened since last year against Trump.
In late May, Trump was found guilty by a jury in New York on 34 counts of falsifying company records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels so she would not reveal before the 2016 election a relationship they allegedly had ten years earlier.
After the Supreme Court’s decision on the partial immunity of American presidents and former presidents, Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the criminal case in New York, decided to postpone the announcement of the sentence until September 18, so that it can be assessed whether the Supreme Court’s understanding can annul the verdict.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office understands that it is not, but this month it did not oppose a request from the defense to postpone the announcement of the sentence until after the presidential election on November 5, in which Trump will once again be the Republican candidate.
In the Georgia case in which Trump and others were charged with an alleged attempt to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election, an appeals court has suspended proceedings until a panel of judges rules on a request to disqualify prosecutor Fani Willis.
Finally, in July, a federal judge in Florida dismissed the lawsuit against Trump over classified documents taken to his Mar-a-Lago residence after his presidency.
Judge Aileen Cannon considered unconstitutional the appointment of a specific federal prosecutor for the case – Jack Smith himself, who also worked on the case and who appealed the decision.
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