Jack Smith and his revised indictment against Donald Trump has been criticized by a Department of Justice official who has been removed from the original.
Jeffrey Clark, identifiably as alleged “co-conspirator No. 4” in the initial indictment, was deleted from the new version filed Tuesday. The new version has nine fewer pages with changes reflecting the U.S. Supreme Court’s July ruling that presidents enjoy broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts in office.
The new indictment again accuses Trump of four crimes: conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. Trump previously pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, Clark criticized the role of special counsels, saying “the whole device of setting up dedicated prosecutors and making them go after singular targets is unconstitutional.”
Clark also suggested the case against Trump should have been dropped because of the Trump assassination attempt on July 13.
“In a saner age,” he wrote, “…after the failed assassination attempt on Trump, an ordinary prosecutor thinking about the national interest might say to him or herself: Let me drop this hyper-political case and help the Nation heal.”
But, he argued, “such a targeted counsel is incentivized by the very design of his office to keep going after the target until the target or the prosecutor is no more.”
In a phone interview, Clark also told Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast that Smith’s new indictment was an “election interference tactic to slap Trump right before we really get into the height of campaign season, with the debate coming up.”
Trump responded to the new indictment on Truth Social, calling it “an effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ Witch Hunt.”
This breaking news article will be updated.
Susan Walsh/Getty/AP
