The new superseding indictment in Donald Trump’s election fraud case is nine pages shorter than the original, with pages 9 to 11 removed completely.
The new indictment repeatedly emphasizes that Trump was acting as an election candidate, not as president, when he sought to overturn the 2020 presidential result.
The indictment’s new wording is an attempt to obey the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling on presidential immunity.
On Tuesday, chief prosecutor Jack Smith filed the new indictment after seeking a month-long delay in the case.
Emily Elconin/Getty Images
The new filing shows that Smith made the decision to go before a grand jury and get a new superseding indictment, rather than make smaller amendments to the indictment.
That means that the new indictment will be subject to a completely new legal challenge, and Trump’s lawyers will be able to appeal its contents all the way through the federal appeal court system, and likely back to the Supreme Court.
There are numerous additions to the text as Smith and his team emphasize that Trump was acting as an election candidate, not as president.
Even with those additions, the indictment is nine pages shorter than the original, as Smith has had to remove any reference to Trump’s private conduct or official conduct that was used as evidence to indict Trump for private conduct.
Trump was indicted on four counts of allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty and has said the case is part of a political witch hunt.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on July 1 that presidents have broad immunity for official acts. The court said that presidents have absolute immunity for core political acts and have some immunity for other acts committed as president, but no immunity for strictly private conduct.
It also ruled that official acts cannot be used as evidence if taking a case against a president for unofficial acts—a part of the ruling that is highly relevant to the Trump case.
The new 36-page indictment still includes the same four criminal counts but has a much greater emphasis on Trump the candidate, not the president.
Newsweek sought email comment on Wednesday from Trump’s attorney and from the office of special counsel Jack Smith.
Allison Gill, of the Mueller She Wrote legal blog, published a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis.
It shows that in the very first paragraph, the phrase “the forty-fifth President of the United States” is deleted in favor of “a candidate for President of the United States”.
Gill adds a note to this change: “You’ve heard me say it a thousand times—it’s important to underscore that Donald was acting as a candidate for president, and not in the scope of his duties as president. That means no presidential immunity would apply, so Jack Smith is making that clear here.”
The new indictment also deletes the allegation that Trump put pressure on Justice Department officials to help overturn the 2020 election result.
The Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling specifically says that Trump’s discussions with Justice Department officials are likely immune from prosecution.
Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark was not named in the original indictment but could be identified from his actions. All of this has been removed from the new indictment.
There are many many places where references to Trump’s acts as president are replaced with wording that emphasizes that he was acting as a candidate.
“He did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” one new part of the indictment states, with the word “personal” appearing several times in various parts of the document.
Referencing the lawsuit Trump filed to stop the election result in Georgia, the old wording that the lawsuit was “filed in his name” has been replaced with “filed in his capacity as a candidate for president.”
