U.S. prosecutors have deleted some of the charges related to former President Donald Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 election results. This amounts to a reduction in the scope of the allegations.
According to AP News and others, on the 27th (local time), Special Counsel Jack Smith, who indicted former President Trump, submitted a new indictment to the court deleting the parts related to the allegation that Trump tried to overturn the election defeat through discussions with federal Department of Justice officials.
Trump was indicted on the same charges last August, but the indictment was revised following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the 1st of last month, which broadly recognized criminal immunity for acts committed by a former president during their term in office.
The Supreme Court ruled that a former president enjoys criminal immunity for official acts performed while in office. It determined that discussions with Department of Justice officials after the election, which fall under four categories of allegations related to Trump's attempt to overturn the election, are protected by immunity. The Supreme Court had been reshaped to a conservative 6-3 majority during Trump's presidency.
The new indictment is nine pages shorter than the previous one. Many of the discussions with Department of Justice officials were also deleted.
However, the charge that former President Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results won by President Joe Biden was not removed from the indictment. Regarding the charge of pressuring former Vice President Pence, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that immunity could presumably apply.
Former President Trump has faced a total of four criminal indictments, including charges related to attempts to overturn the election. He was found guilty of falsifying company records related to hush money payments for a sexual misconduct scandal. However, with the Supreme Court broadly recognizing criminal immunity for former presidents, the prevailing view is that a first trial verdict before the November election is unlikely.
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