The special counsel of the US Department of Justice Jack Smith opened a high-profile case against former president Donald Trump for his alleged attempts to interfere in the 2020 election following his loss to Joe Biden.
The new charge sheet comes in line with allegations against Trump in the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling that presidents cannot be prosecuted for certain conduct at work.
The revised indictment maintains the four criminal charges against Trump, but outlines some of the alleged explanations for his behavior.
Trump has denied allegations of election interference, though he has maintained his claim – without evidence – that there was massive voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The new indictment leaves in place the four charges that Trump is accused of – conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct legal proceedings, attempting to obstruct legal proceedings and conspiracy to abuse rights.
Trump has denied all charges.
But the indictment – which has been reduced verbatim from 45 to 36 pages – repeats the language of the allegations and details the ways in which the former president allegedly committed these crimes to deal with them. Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity.
The new lawsuit, for example, refutes the claim that Trump tried to pressure Justice Department officials to work to reverse his defeat. The High Court ruled that Trump’s directive to the judiciary was illegal.
The special counsel’s office explained the rationale for the new indictment in a statement Tuesday.
“The previous case, which was presented before a new judge who had never heard evidence in this case, shows the Government’s efforts to respect and use the Supreme Court and the order to reverse the case in Trump v. United States,” said the office.
A new charging document says Trump acted as a private citizen — not as president — when he made the allegations to sway the election.
“The defendant had no official responsibilities related to the conduct of the certification, but had a personal interest as a candidate to be nominated as the winner of the election,” read another new line in the lawsuit.
Another new line refers to a lawsuit filed by his campaign in Georgia. The old language said the lawsuit was “filed in his name,” but the new lawsuit said it was “filed in his capacity as representative of the president.”
The new indictment also appears to have dropped charges against Jeffrey Clark – a former Justice Department official who, according to prosecutors, played a major role in the so-called fraudulent election process.
The fake voter program was an attempt to disrupt the Electoral College system that decides the presidential election. It focused on an effort to persuade Republican-controlled state legislatures in seven states to elect Republican voters or nominate any voters in states won by Mr. Biden.
The fake certificates were then passed on to the US Senate in an attempt to have their votes counted in place of the real voters, and overturn Mr Biden’s victory.
Mr. Clark has not been named in either case, but has been identified to the media through public records.
The new indictment leaves open several key allegations against Trump, including that he tried to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to block Mr Biden’s certificate of election.
In a Supreme Court decision last month, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that any conversations between Trump and Mr Pence would likely fall under the official category.
“Trump is at least not impeachable,” he wrote, adding that it remains to be seen whether the government can reject “that presumption of assertion”.
Source link
