CNN —
Special Counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday filed an indictment in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump, scaling back charges against the 2024 presidential candidate in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
Prosecutors have not dropped any of the four charges they originally brought against the former president, but the newly amended indictment details some of Trump’s alleged conduct, including his alleged attempts to use the Justice Department to spread false claims of election fraud.
It also adjusts how prosecutors explain the allegations they continue to raise about Trump’s plot to disrupt the election.
“The indictment, presented to a new grand jury that has never previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the government’s effort to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s decision and remand instructions in Trump v. United States,” the special counsel’s office said.
The superseding indictment pushes the issue of Trump trying to steal the 2020 election into the crucial final months of the campaign in 2024. For much of this year, Trump’s legal and political arguments have fused through his claim that he is the victim of a conspiracy by the Biden administration to weaponize the judiciary against him.
But the success of Trump’s legal team in using the appeals process to delay much of his trial or, in the case of charges related to mishandling classified documents, to have those charges dismissed altogether, and changes to the campaign with new Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, have cast a cloud over the former president’s legal woes in recent days.
Smith’s determination to salvage his case after the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling underscores Trump’s deep personal interest in winning the case in November and regaining executive power to end federal lawsuits.
Sources familiar with the matter said Trump’s legal team had expected such a rewrite of the indictment to prepare for the next phase of the case after the Supreme Court ruling — a hearing in the case is already scheduled for next Thursday in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s courtroom — but that the indictment would be rewritten so quickly came as a surprise.
In the revised indictment, prosecutors repeatedly argue that Trump lacked constitutional presidential duties regarding the post-election transfer of power.
They did so to highlight how the new indictment is consistent with Supreme Court decisions that have granted immunity to President Trump for some acts that fell within the scope of his official duties.
In one case, prosecutors pointed to the Electoral College certification process that took place during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. Part of the criminal complaint accuses Trump of illegally disrupting the certification process.
“Although Defendant had no official responsibility with respect to the certification process, as a candidate he had a personal interest in being designated the winner of the election,” the indictment states, in a new sentence that was not included in the original indictment.
Another example is a lawsuit brought by the Trump campaign over the results of the Georgia election, which Trump narrowly lost. The previous indictment said the lawsuit was “brought in Mr. Trump’s name,” but the new indictment says it was “brought in his capacity as a candidate for president.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Casey Gannon contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional details.
