Former US president Donald Trump was hit by a new federal indictment on Tuesday in his bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat, with prosecutors narrowing their approach after a US supreme court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity form criminal prosecution.
US special counsel Jack Smith’s team obtained a new indictment in the Washington case.
The revised indictment lays out the same four charges it brought against the Republican former president last year focusing on Trump’s role as a political candidate seeking re-election, rather than as the president at the time.
The Supreme Court ruled on July 1st that Mr Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions that were within his constitutional powers as president.
Attorneys for Mr Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The revised indictment no longer includes allegations that Trump sought to pressure the US 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.
This indictment, like the initial one, accuses Trump of a multi-part conspiracy to block the certification of his election defeat to Democratic president Joe Biden.
Trump is again seeking election as the Republican candidate, this time in a race against Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris. The election takes place on November 5th this year.
The case was presented to a new grand jury, one that had not heard evidence from the original case, said a justice department spokesman.
The new version of the indictment hinges on key testimony and evidence from witnesses largely outside the federal government, such as former Arizona House speaker Rusty Bowers, whom the indictment says was pressured by Mr Trump and a co-conspirator to call a special session to hold a hearing based on bogus assertions of voter fraud. – Reuters
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