U.S. prosecutors obtained a new indictment in the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump on Tuesday, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
The new indictment dropped allegations that Trump sought to pressure the U.S. Justice Department in his bid to overturn his election defeat, an apparent effort to keep the prosecution alive after the high court found that Trump could not be prosecuted for that conduct.
The updated criminal case no longer lists as a co-conspirator Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department official who championed Trump’s false claims of election fraud. Trump’s co-conspirators were not named in either indictment, but they have been identified through public records and other means.
U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith had on Monday asked a federal appeals court to revive the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of retaining classified documents, after a lower court dismissed the indictment in July, according to a court filing.
In their brief, Smith and his team of attorneys urged the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to overturn the July 15 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon in which she concluded that Smith was unlawfully appointed and did not have the legal authority to bring the case.
Trump, the first former U.S. president to be criminally prosecuted, is the Republican nominee for president.Â
