Biden-Harris Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has superseded the 2020 election-interference indictment of former president Donald Trump. The new indictment (or the “superseder”) was unsealed today after having been returned by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., where District Judge Tanya Chutkan is presiding over the case.
The superseder is in reaction to the Supreme Court’s July 1 decision regarding Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution (Trump v. United States). The Court held that presidents (including former presidents) are presumptively immune from prosecution for all official acts within the broad ambit of their authority and absolutely immune for acts within executive power as set out in Article II of the Constitution. Derivatively, there is evidentiary immunity: Prosecutors are forbidden from using evidence of official presidential acts to prove crimes that are based on private (or nonofficial) conduct.
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