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   From: X@Y.com   
      
   Trump indicted again in election subversion case brought by Jack Smith   
      
   The 36-page indictment, secured Tuesday by the special counsel, is an   
   attempt to recalibrate the case after the Supreme Court’s immunity   
   decision.   
      
   A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. has reindicted Donald Trump on   
   four felony charges related to his effort to subvert the 2020 presidential   
   election.   
      
   The 36-page indictment, secured Tuesday by special counsel Jack Smith, is   
   an attempt by prosecutors to streamline the case against Trump to address   
   the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that concluded presidents enjoy   
   sweeping immunity from prosecution for their official conduct.   
      
   The new indictment removes some specific allegations against Trump but   
   contains the same four criminal charges, including conspiracy to defraud   
   the United States. It’s a signal that Smith believes the high court’s   
   immunity decision doesn’t pose a major impediment to convicting the former   
   president.   
      
   “The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that   
   had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s   
   efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand   
   instructions,” Smith’s team wrote in an accompanying court filing.   
      
   The development is unlikely to alter the reality that a trial in the case   
   before the November election looks impossible. In fact, the new indictment   
   could drag the case out further — defense attorneys often seek delays after   
   prosecutors revise criminal allegations.   
      
   Both sides face a Friday deadline to propose next steps to U.S. District   
   Judge Tanya Chutkan, the Biden appointee who is overseeing the proceedings   
   in the trial court. Chutkan has scheduled a Sept. 5 hearing to set a course   
   for the case.   
      
   Trump pleaded not guilty to the initial indictment and has repeatedly   
   decried the prosecution as a political vendetta. After the new indictment   
   was unveiled on Tuesday, Trump called it “ridiculous” in a post on his   
   social media site, Truth Social.   
      
   “For them to do this immediately after our Supreme Court Victory on   
   Immunity and more, is shocking,” Trump wrote.   
      
   The new charging document seeks to revive a case that was stalled for   
   months while the Supreme Court weighed Trump’s immunity arguments. In a   
   largely 6-3 decision on July 1, the high court announced a robust version   
   of presidential immunity that made clear that at least some of the special   
   counsel’s allegations could not proceed — and left the rest of the case in   
   jeopardy.   
      
   The new indictment seeks to rely on a distinction the Supreme Court drew   
   between a president’s private actions (which can be the subject of criminal   
   charges) and actions that stem from a president’s official powers (which   
   now carry a large degree of immunity).   
      
   In an apparent bid to downplay any connection between Trump’s official   
   duties and his bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, the new indictment   
   repeatedly emphasizes the political and personal nature of many of the   
   actions Trump took during the post-election period and on Jan. 6, 2021.   
      
   For instance, the document underscores that Mike Pence was not only vice   
   president, but also Trump’s “running mate,” when Trump pressured Pence to   
   block the certification of the election results. It notes that Trump’s   
   rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, was “privately funded” and “privately   
   organized.” And it stresses that Trump often used his Twitter account for   
   “personal purposes.”   
      
   The new document also eliminates a long list of top government officials   
   who had informed Trump that his claims about election fraud and anomalies   
   were false, including top intelligence, Justice Department, homeland   
   security officials and White House lawyers.   
      
   Smith’s original 45-page indictment, unveiled last August, included claims   
   that Trump sought to use the Justice Department to advance what prosecutors   
   contend was an unlawful and fraudulent effort to overturn the election.   
   Those details, which the Supreme Court put largely beyond the reach of   
   prosecutors, have been omitted from the new, shorter charging document.   
      
   The new indictment adds no new defendants, but deletes all references to   
   one alleged co-conspirator mentioned in the earlier indictment without   
   being named or charged: former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.   
      
   Clark held a Senate-confirmed post as head of DOJ’s Environmental and   
   Natural Resources Division and was serving as the acting head of the   
   department’s Civil Division at the end of the Trump administration when   
   Trump considered a plan to install Clark to replace acting Attorney General   
   Jeffrey Rosen.   
      
   Witnesses told a House investigation that, in the weeks after the 2020   
   election, Rosen and other Trump appointees had refused to send letters to   
   local election officials claiming fraud in the presidential election   
   results, but Clark was willing to do so. Trump ultimately abandoned the   
   plan after nearly all of the senior leaders of the Justice Department said   
   they would resign in protest.   
      
   In addition to the election subversion case, Smith has also charged Trump   
   in Florida with hoarding classified documents and obstructing justice.   
   Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed that case last month — a   
   decision that Smith is appealing.   
      
   Trump also faces criminal charges in Georgia for interfering with the 2020   
   election results in that state. And in May, he was convicted in New York of   
   falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn   
   star.   
   https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/27/trump-indicted-2020-election-   
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