Tuesday afternoon, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment in the D.C. criminal case against former President Donald Trump. The new indictment essentially pared down the original, presumably in an attempt to jibe with the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling in Trump v. U.S.
As George Washington Law professor Jonathan Turley explained to Fox News’ Bret Baier, Smith kept the four charges previously filed against Trump and took out any evidence that would have contradicted the Supreme Court’s decision in the case. And he still has doubts as to how or whether this “new and improved” effort will bear fruit for Smith.
Jack Smith Files Superseding Indictment Against Donald Trump in 2020 Election Case
Not long after news broke of the new filing, Trump took to Truth Social to respond to it. It’s fair to say the former president wasn’t all that pleased with the development.
Statement from President Trump: pic.twitter.com/tGmofuFHfq
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 27, 2024
With his usual flair, Trump lays out the case against the case(s) against him, calling it an attempt “to resurrect a ‘dead’ WITCH HUNT,” and asserting that Kamala Harris’ willingness to let it proceed is a travesty. He also characterized it as a “direct attack on Democracy” and an “unprecedented abuse of the Criminal Justice System.”
But then, following up on a point he raised in his initial response, Trump also pointed out that this superseding indictment may violate Department of Justice policy, which prohibits taking any action that might influence an election within 60 days of the election.
It is DOJ policy that the Department of Justice should not take any action that will influence an election within 60 days of that election – but they just have taken such action. Voting starts on September 6th, therefore the DOJ has violated its own policy – Election Interference. All of these Comrade Kamala/Biden Hoaxes should be immediately DISMISSED!
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But wait — if the election is on November 5, we’re still outside that 60 day window, right? Not so fast, notes Trump. Since early voting starts September 6 in some states (thank you, Dems), we’re well within it. Smith will undoubtedly argue that filing a revised indictment in an already pending proceeding does not violate the rule (which, isn’t a formal rule in any event, but rather a “norm” that, at one time, the DOJ claimed to follow, and I think we’ve establish that the “norms” ship sailed around the time that Trump descended his golden escalator in June 2015 — all in the name of “protecting democracy.”)
Be that as it may, Trump raises a fair and broader point: We’re knocking on the door of the election at this point. Any move made by the DOJ (or the state courts) in the coming weeks is going to be unmistakably perceived as an attempt to interfere with the election — as well it should be. Not that that will stop them.
