Special counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment against Donald Trump in the federal Jan. 6-related prosecution on Tuesday. The superseding indictment presents the same four charges, albeit in a shorter indictment, against the former president.
Smith explained in an accompanying filing that the superseding indictment was presented to a new grand jury that hadn’t previously heard evidence in the case and that it “reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions in Trump v. United States,” referring to the July 1 immunity ruling.
In that ruling, the Republican-appointed majority said that Trump is absolutely immune for “core” constitutional acts, presumptively immune for all official acts but not immune for unofficial ones. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the trial court to determine what in the indictment survives the immunity ruling, a process that still needs to get underway. The latest indictment attempts to get ahead of that process by slimming down details in the indictment that the government thinks could have been objectionable under the immunity ruling. A joint status report to the trial judge, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, is due Friday.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
