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US prosecutors have filed an amended set of charges against Donald Trump alleging he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling that granted the president broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
The indictment, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington by special counsel Jack Smith, comes weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that a federal judge must hear the case to determine what elements of “official acts” Trump could be exonerated for.
The indictment contains the same four core charges that Smith brought against the former president last year, relating to the events following the 2020 election and the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
But the indictment no longer includes allegations that Trump directed the Justice Department to declare the election fraudulent, or conversations with Jeffrey Clark, the Justice Department official whom Trump sought to install as attorney general.
Smith wrote to the court on Tuesday that the case was “presented to a new grand jury that has not previously heard the evidence in this case,” and that it “reflects the government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s decision.”
Democrats had hoped that a series of criminal indictments filed against Trump over the past year would hurt his election, but they have had little impact on his standing among Republicans, who overwhelmingly supported him in the 2024 election. Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts in Manhattan earlier this year also had little noticeable effect on polls.
Meanwhile, the lawsuits face a series of obstacles that virtually eliminate any chance of them being resolved before the November election.
Trump called the new indictment “absurd” and argued it has the same legal problems as the previous indictment. “The public will now see the fraudulent case against me for what it is, and they will reject it by giving me a resounding victory on November 5th,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform.
Smith, who was appointed to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump, had filed two federal criminal charges against the former president.
Trump’s legal team had asked the Supreme Court to determine that Trump was immune from prosecution for acts committed while in office in the 2020 presidential election lawsuits. In July, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court ruled that certain charges should be removed from the indictment, saying that “certain charges, such as Mr. Trump’s discussions with the acting attorney general, can be easily categorized in light of the nature of the official relationship between the president and the office he holds.”
The Supreme Court asked Judge Tanya Chutkan, presiding over the case, to analyse the indictment and bar it from including any “official acts” before proceeding with the trial, signalling it hopes the trial will not be rushed.
Smith’s team is seeking to reopen a separate federal criminal case against Trump over allegations that he stored classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Judge Eileen Cannon presiding over that case agreed with Trump’s lawyers that appointing Smith without express Congressional approval was unconstitutional and summarily dismissed the charges.
Of the four criminal charges filed against Trump last year, only one has gone to trial: a lawsuit brought by the Manhattan district attorney alleging whether Trump falsified business records to hide payments to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in the case in September, but the ruling could be delayed further as justices decide whether the Supreme Court’s decision will affect his sentence.
Last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg objected to the prosecution’s presentation of what he called “official acts” at trial but did not oppose a defense request for a delay.
A successful delay would ensure that Trump does not face further criminal charges before the November election, where he is narrowly trailing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in polls tracking the race.
Meanwhile, a New York appeals court is scheduled to hear cases next month over whether President Trump should pay more than $450 million after being found liable for fraud in a civil lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general.
