Donald Trump faces new charges in 2020 election interference case, US News reports
A recent indictment has been filed against Donald Trump concerning his actions to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election after losing to Joe Biden.
The updated document omits a section that accused Mr Trump of using the Justice Department’s law enforcement powers to reverse his election defeat.
This particular conduct was deemed immune from prosecution by the Supreme Court, which stated that former presidents are typically immune from prosecution for official White House actions.
The new indictment was submitted three days before a deadline for special counsel Jack Smith’s office to inform the judge on how they intended to proceed in light of that ruling.
The special counsel’s office mentioned that the revised indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, was issued by a grand jury that had not previously reviewed evidence in the case.
The original indictment included accusations that Mr Trump had tried to involve the Justice Department in his unsuccessful attempt to overturn the election results.
This involved conducting fake investigations and falsely informing states that significant fraud had been identified.
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It detailed how Jeffrey Clark, a senior official in the Trump Justice Department, attempted to send a letter to elected officials in certain states falsely stating that the department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election” and had requested top department officials to sign it, but they declined.
Mr Clark’s support for Trump’s claims of election fraud led the then president to consider appointing him as acting attorney general in place of Jeffrey Rosen.
Mr Trump eventually gave up on his plan to replace Mr Rosen with Mr Clark “when he was informed it would result in mass resignations at the Justice Department,” as per the original indictment.