Law Dork: “Donald Trump was indicted again on Tuesday, a superseding indictment in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of the former president for his actions seeking to overturn the 2020 election. The superseding indictment in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., was Smith’s response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s July decision holding that former presidents maintain some immunity from criminal prosecution after they leave office, including absolute immunity for acts within what Chief Justice John Roberts described for the court as a president’s “core constitutional powers.” The court also held that a former president also maintains at least a “presumption” of immunity for any official actions within the “outer perimeter” of that president’s duties. Tuesday was not a political fight with the court. It was, in some ways, the opposite. This was Smith and his team saying, “We will take your ruling as it is, and show you how, even under that standard, this indictment can be maintained and proven to a jury.” Tuesday’s superseding indictment brings the same four charges against Trump — conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding (as well as obstruction of and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding); and conspiracy against rights, specifically, “the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted” — as he had faced under the original indictment issued last year. Although U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit both rejected Trump presidential immunity claim, the conservatives on the Supreme Court sided with Trump 6-3 in July on the question of whether Trump could still claim any presidential immunity in response to the indictment. Tuesday was Smith’s next step, and the superseding indictment represents his attempt to immunity-proof the indictment. For the most part. As I detail below, he remained willing to fight for at least one part of the original indictment — relating to former Vice President Mike Pence’s role in all of this — even if it will mean more legal fights going forward. It is, let’s be clear, not a sign that this will be moving quickly. Not at all. This is, instead, a sign that Smith plans to continue forward with this prosecution after the election — if Trump loses in November….”

See also “MuellerSheWrote just finished a line-by-line comparison between the original Trump coup indictment and the new one issued today. You can see what’s been stricken, what’s new, and why.”