The special prosecutor in charge of the investigation into Donald Trump in the case of the assault on the Capitol presented this Tuesday a new indictment against the former US president, downgrading the allegations to conform to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the immunity of his actions as president.
Jack Smith maintains the four charges against himsuch as conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, but limits some allegations about his plans for electoral subversion.
According to statements from the special prosecutor’s office cited by CNN, this new indictment, presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case, reflects the government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s ruling.
This accusation, like the initial one, accuses Trump of a multi-party conspiracy to block the certification of his election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
The former US president called the new accusation ridiculous. On his social network, Truth Social, he considered that The “deranged” Jack Smith has brought this “ridiculous” charge against him “in an effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ witch hunt in Washington DC, in an act of desperation and to save face.”
“This is simply an attempt to INTERFERE WITH THE ELECTIONS and to distract the American people from the catastrophes that Kamala Harris has inflicted on our nation, such as the border invasion, immigrant crime, rampant inflation, the threat of a Third World War, and more…”, he stressed.
The former president described it as “surprising” that this step was taken after the Supreme Court ruling granting him immunity and considered it to be “an unprecedented abuse of the criminal judicial system.”
Trump recalled that the case concerns the “conspiracy to obstruct the 2020 presidential election,” which led to the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
That day, some 10,000 people – most of them Trump supporters – marched on Congress and about 800 stormed the building as Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the election was being certified. There were five deaths and about 140 officers injured.
“They (the Democrats) are the ones who obstructed the election, “Not me. They cheated and they’re coming after me. Interestingly, this comes at the same time that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has admitted to hiding massive amounts of information (…) which is a direct admission that the 2020 election was RIGGED by the Department of Justice. What they’re doing is the greatest sabotage of democracy in our history,” he said.
Presidential immunity
The Republican candidate, who is trailing his Democratic opponent in polls on voting intentions, said the system is being manipulated against him and blamed Harris for leading this movement.
“As Jack Smith knows, The entire case should be dismissed on grounds of presidential immunityas the U.S. Supreme Court has already unequivocally ruled. Smith has rewritten the exact same case in an effort to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decision,” Truth Social noted.
In his view, the Americans will realise all the “corrupt accusations” against him and show their rejection of them by granting him an “overwhelming victory” on 5 November.
“I want you to know that I will never give up!” he stressed in another message distributed by email by his campaign.
On July 1, the Supreme Court granted the now ex-president partial immunity. By a vote of six to three, the progressive judges concluded that “a former president has the right to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his constitutional authority,” but established that “There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
Smith’s indictment has been cut from 45 pages to 36, and, as reported by The Washington Post, removes allegations related to Trump’s efforts to get the Justice Department to support his claim of voter fraud in 2020.
In its July decision, the Supreme Court said Trump could not face charges related to his exchanges with Justice Department officials, saying his interactions with the department were part of his job duties.
