Federal authorities file new charges in Trump January 6 case – NECN

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment against Donald Trump on Tuesday over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, maintaining the same criminal charges but narrowing the allegations against him after the Supreme Court granted former presidents broad immunity.

The new indictment strikes out a section of the indictment that accused Trump of attempting to use the Justice Department's police powers to overturn his election defeat, an area on which the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 ruling last month that Trump was absolutely immune from prosecution.

The scaled-back criminal case is a first attempt by prosecutors to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that will likely result in a significant revision of the charges against Trump for his efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. The case was filed three days before the deadline for Smith's office to tell the judge how it plans to proceed in light of the ruling, which presumably gives former presidents immunity from prosecution for official White House acts.

The special counsel's office said the updated indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, was issued by a grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case.

The original indictment included allegations that Trump attempted to enlist the Justice Department in his failed attempt to overturn his election defeat, including conducting sham investigations and telling states – falsely – that significant voter fraud had been found.

It detailed how Jeffrey Clark, a senior official in the Justice Department under Trump, attempted to send a letter to elected officials in certain states falsely claiming that the department had identified “significant concerns that may have affected the outcome of the election” and asked senior department officials to sign the letter, but they refused.

Clark's support for Trump's election fraud claims led Trump to openly consider appointing him as acting attorney general instead of Jeffrey Rosen. Trump eventually abandoned his plan to replace Rosen with Clark “when he was told it would lead to mass resignations in the Justice Department,” according to the original indictment. Rosen remained acting attorney general until the end of the term.

Attorney General Merrick Garland made the remarks after former President Donald Trump was charged in an investigation into attempts to influence the 2020 election.

In the new case, Clark is no longer mentioned as a co-conspirator. Trump's co-conspirators were not named in any of the indictments but were identified through public records and other means.

The Supreme Court ruled that a president's contacts with the Justice Department were official acts for which he was entitled to immunity, effectively rendering the allegations in this case moot.

Other allegations in the case – including that Trump tried to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the electoral vote count – were remanded to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine what constitutes an official act and what does not.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that the interactions between Trump and Pence constituted official conduct for which “Trump at least presumptively enjoys immunity from prosecution.”

The question, Roberts wrote, is whether the government can rebut “that presumption of immunity.”

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the ruling, saying in an interview with CBS News' “Sunday Morning” on Tuesday: “I was concerned about a system that seemed to grant immunity to a person under certain circumstances. Yet we have a criminal justice system that normally treats everyone equally.”