Special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment Tuesday in the Jan. 6 election interference case against former President Donald Trump that tailored the details of the allegations in light of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts.
In an effort to comply with the high court’s June ruling, Smith presented a second Washington grand jury with the same four charges in Tuesday’s indictment that he charged Trump with last August.
Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
What’s changed?
A section from the original indictment that is absent from the new one accused Trump of pressuring the Justice Department to allow states to withhold their electors in the 2020 election. That effort set up a confrontation between Trump and then–Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and other administration officials who threatened to resign should Trump require them to move ahead with that plan.
Delay explained
Earlier this month, Smith’s team submitted a legal filing with Judge Tanya Chutkan saying that the government was requesting “additional time to provide the Court with an informed proposal regarding the schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward.”
Given that Smith was in the process of obtaining a new superseding indictment from a grand jury, the reasons for that requested delay have now become apparent.
