WASHINGTON – The prosecutor in former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference case secured a new indictment against Trump Tuesday. The new superseding indictment is intended to deal with the Supreme Court’s decision in July that Trump had broad immunity from charges relating to official acts as president.
The new indictment basically sought to distinguish Trump's private actions, which could face charges, from public duties, which would be immune from prosecution. For example, the indictment alleged his false statements about election fraud in social media posts and during his speech near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, were campaign related and thus "private" rather than official.
One of the starkest changes in the indictment removed allegations against an unindicted co-conspirator, Jeffrey Clark, who was then an assistant attorney general. Clark helped Trump pressure other Justice Department officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election, but numerous references to the department and that effort were removed from the indictment.
The Supreme Court had ruled that Trump couldn’t be prosecuted for that conduct because the Justice Department is part of the executive branch that he oversaw as president.
Trump called the new indictment "ridiculous" in a post on Truth Social and argued it “has all the problems of the old indictment, and should be dismissed IMMEDIATELY.”
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