Special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Biden-Harris administration's Department of Justice, filed the indictment against Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night.
Legal experts, including George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, former assistant U.S. attorney Andy McCarthy and former federal prosecutor and Trump lawyer Jim Trusty, blasted Smith for the new indictment, which he filed in the wake of the Supreme Court's July ruling granting presidential immunity.
“Nothing will happen before the election.”
Smith's latest lawsuit contains the same four charges as the original indictment he filed against Trump in August 2023 for interfering with federal elections in 2020. But the revised indictment, handed down just 70 days before the next election, seeks to address a Supreme Court ruling that declared the president has immunity from office.
Trump also faces three separate indictments, including a New York criminal trial awaiting a verdict scheduled for September, a Georgia election interference case that is stalled in court, and a classified documents case that was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon. Smith recently appealed Cannon's decision.
Trusty told CNN News Central that Smith's latest indictment “Huge landmineBecause the case seeks to “predict how a judge may rule on this difficult official conduct issue.”
The Supreme Court ruled that President Trump is immune from liability for his official acts, but did not clarify what constitutes official and what is unofficial, leaving that determination to lower courts.
“He anticipates that, but the opinion is very interesting because it says that not only was the exculpatory information not properly presented to the court at trial, but it taints the grand jury process. It's a huge landmine if you include that information in pursuing an indictment,” Trusty explained. “The problem is, if he guesses wrong even once – in other words, if he says, 'Oh, the President was consulting Mike Pence as President of the Senate, not as Vice President,' that's part of this new indictment, and if he gets it wrong even once, he's got the same problem.”
“Based on this Supreme Court decision, he will have to go back to the grand jury and re-indict for a third time. What's interesting is that this is a lead-in, but it's not necessarily a perfect indictment,” Trusty added.
Turley said Smith “Always played to the very edge” He added, “At times he has overstepped the line.”
“He had his case overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in probably his most famous case, but that was because he went beyond the law, and I think that's what characterizes him and he still continues to do that,” Turley said. be against The Supreme Court ultimately overturned the convictions in a case against former Virginia Republican Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife.
McCarthy called the indictment against Trump “Legal warfare“I don't think this is going to get anywhere before the election, and I don't think it's going to get anywhere until we have a new president,” he speculated.
He noted that despite the amended indictment, “the issue of immunity from prosecution remains open, meaning Trump can appeal to the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court.”
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) Newsmax Smith on Wednesday called the new indictment “simply disturbing,” noting that the charges came nearly two months before the election. He accused the Biden-Harris administration of doing everything it can to win the presidential election.
“This is outright election interference and the American people need to wake up,” Scott said.
President Trump responded to Smith's amended indictment on social media on Tuesday, saying, “The entire incident is kicked out and fired Because of presidential immunity.”
He accused Smith of “rewriting the exact same case to avoid the Supreme Court's decision.”
Trump described Smith's actions as “shocking“An unprecedented abuse of the criminal justice system”
“This is simply Interfering in electionsand distract the American people from the disasters Kamala Harris has brought to our country: border invasions, immigrant crime, rampant inflation and the threat of World War III,” Trump wrote.
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