Why the special counsel filed a new Jan. 6 indictment against Trump

The fallout from the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity continues. Special counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment against former President Trump in federal court. The charges against the Republican nominee remain the same: four counts related to alleged actions he took to stay in power after the 2020 election. Geoff Bennett broke down the new indictment with Carrie Johnson of NPR.
Geoff Bennett:
The fallout from last month’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity continues. Special counsel Jack Smith has filed a new indictment against former President Donald Trump in federal court. The charges against Mr. Trump remain the same, four counts related to alleged actions he took to stay in power after the 2020 election.
To explain what the new indictment means, Carrie Johnson, justice correspondent for NPR, joins us.
Carrie, it’s always great to see you.
So, help us understand why Jack Smith thought that this new indictment, this revised indictment, was necessary.
Carrie Johnson, NPR:
The Supreme Court decision last month cut away a significant part of the special counsel’s case against Donald Trump here in Washington, D.C., and the special counsel, Jack Smith, told the court today that he was responding to the Supreme Court’s directives and basically tightening his case in some important respects against the former president to make it comply with the instructions the Supreme Court had given him.
Geoff Bennett:
So, we have got this new 36-page superseding indictment and the original 45-page indictment. What are the biggest changes between the two, Carrie?
Carrie Johnson:
The single biggest change is that the Supreme Court last month told the special counsel that the president has a lot of power, a great deal of leeway when it comes to interactions with the Justice Department.
And so Jack Smith has removed a bunch of allegations from this indictment that initially charged Trump with leaning on Justice Department officials to go along with bogus claims of voter fraud and election fraud and try to convince states to do the same thing.
Now all of that is out of the indictment, as is one of the co-conspirators, a man we believe to be Jeffrey Clark, who was elevated by Donald Trump inside the Justice Department shortly before the events of January 6, 2021, and a man who appeared to have been on board with Trump’s strategy about the election.
All of that is now gone. And then later in the indictment, there’s more language that describes Trump as acting as a person seeking office, a candidate, as opposed to a president using the formal powers of the presidency. That too is in line with what the Supreme Court had to say.
Geoff Bennett:
So what’s next for this case? How might the judge in this case, Judge Tanya Chutkan, how might she receive this?
Carrie Johnson:
The judge has already asked both sides to confer and present her with a plan to how to go forward by Friday. We may have some more details later in the week. The Justice Department says it doesn’t demand that Donald Trump be in court and D.C. in person to respond to these new charges, so he can just do that through his lawyers.
And then, Geoff, the big question is the November election. If Trump prevails, he’s fully in line to order the Justice Department to drop this case against him. And that would likely be legal under the things the Supreme Court has said a president can do while in office.
If Trump does not win in November, then all this legal wrangling becomes much more important. One of the key questions moving forward is, how quickly can a trial of Donald Trump go forward? And will the special counsel add some new defendants, some of these co-conspirators, alleged co-conspirators, people like Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and others, these lawyers who were working in their private capacity at the time to help Donald Trump cling to power?
Geoff Bennett:
Well, in the minute we have left, Carrie, the special counsel and his team, they have been busy, because, just yesterday, they appealed the ruling tossing out the classified documents case.
How does the move today fit within the overall landscape of the special counsel’s work?
Carrie Johnson:
Well, we had heard all along that the special counsel team intended to keep working through the election, and it’s been all systems go from Jack Smith along those lines.
Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge in Florida who was appointed to the bench by Trump, had dismissed that classified documents and obstruction case against him. Prosecutors say Cannon was wrong, wrong about the law.
For 150 years, the Justice Department has selected special prosecutors in this way, or ways like this, and that higher courts should reinstate that case against Trump. That too is going to putter along through the election. We may find out a lot more about that case and whether it gets revived early next year as well.
Geoff Bennett:
NPR’s Carrie Johnson.
Carrie, our deep thanks to you, as always.
Carrie Johnson:
Thanks, Geoff.