On Tuesday, a bit of a bombshell rocked the Trump campaign.
Jack Smith announced a new indictment against Donald Trump in the election subversion case.
Talking Points…
- Jack Smith's new indictment
- Trump responds
- Analysis
After the Supreme Court ruled on presidential immunity and obstruction, Special Counsel Jack Smith had to return to the drawing board to present the indictment against Trump for the election subversion case. It took some time, but Smith finally introduced the superseding indictment against Trump.
In announcing the new indictment, Smith’s office stated:
“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions.”
The original indictment listed Jeffrey Clark, a top official in Trump's DOJ, who wanted to send out a letter that claimed the DOJ had "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election.” The new indictment no longer references Clark. It has returned other allegations, however, such as Trump badgering VP Pence to block the certification of the election. Now, it will be up to Judge Chutkan to decide what acts are to be considered official acts as a president and those of a private citizen.
Trump reacted to the new indictment just as we would have expected, ranting on Truth Social about election interference. As soon as the indictment was announced, Trump posted:
"No Presidential Candidate, or Candidate for any Office, has ever had to put up with all of this Lawfare and Weaponization directly out of the Office of a Political Opponent.
"They’ve Weaponized local D.A.s and Attorney Generals, and anybody else that will listen, to Interfere with the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election - Never been done before. This is now Kamala’s [Harris'] Weaponized System against her Political Opponent. All of these Scams will fail, just as Deranged Jack’s Hoax in Florida has been fully dismissed, and we will win the Most Important Election in the History of our Country on November 5th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump also stated:
“This ridiculous political HOAX, which most thought was already won by me, comes right out of the White House and DOJ, and is being pushed by Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden against their political opponent, ME.”
So, there are some good and some bad points in this report. Bad news first… I have always believed this indictment was among the worst for Trump along with the classified documents case. People need to stop making the argument that other presidents have taken documents and nothing was done to them because that is irrelevant to this case. Trump was charged, and he is going to have to deal with the case because whining about the charges is not going to make them go away. The same can be said about the election subversion case because many of Trump’s actions that day were not those of a sitting president, and he will have to face these charges eventually.
The good news is that we are starting all over again, so there is simply no way this case finds its way into a courtroom before the election. The ideal situation for Trump is to win the election and have his AG dismiss the charges, but that will open up a whole new can of worms and likely lead to another impeachment effort against Trump. This is a legal mess, and while Trump cannot be tried as a sitting president, if he loses this election, at some point next year, he will be on trial to avoid jail for the remainder of his life. Complaining about this on Truth Social will not win the case, and his legal team better devise a strategy to defend Trump because while this case will not see a courtroom for some time, it is already being tried in the public eye.
