by Jeff Childers
ABC News ran a surprisingly helpful story yesterday headlined, “Trump charged in superseding indictment in election interference case following SCOTUS ruling.” Special Counsel Jack Smith was feeling cranky about current events, so he held a whole new grand jury to charge President Trump with new crimes.
Except, the story is both bigger and smaller than it looks. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith (still battling South Florida Judge Aileen Cannon over whether he was legally appointed in the first place), re-charged President Trump yesterday in the “election interference” case pending in D.C.
But the new indictment wasn’t really new. It just reworded Smith’s original claims. If anything, a few of the original claims were removed.
Smith is merely adjusting his case, to improve its chances of surviving the new Supreme Court immunity standard. I know, I know. That spicy old paragon of reliable information Joe Biden told you that the new standard made presidents into “kings” who can never be held accountable, not even for assassinating people willy nilly, just blam! blam! blam! goose-stepping through the halls of Congress while laughing maniacally and continuously shrieking, “I’m the king! I’m the king!”
But I digress.
After tweaking it to better fit the contours of the new Supreme Court standard, Smith’s indictment even shrank a little, deflating from its original, obese 45 pages down to a chubby 36. So we can now quantify what “presidential immunity” is worth: about nine pages.
The revision re-characterized the President’s conduct as being motivated by personal benefit rather than presidential aims. Trump’s lawyers will certainly challenge Smith’s characterizations. It’s a brand-new standard, so we shall see how everything shakes out. But the new indictment made one thing perfectly clear: presidential prosecution is still on the table even after the immunity decision.
Here’s a minority report. I believe this superseding indictment is a positive development, since it proves that the Supreme Court did not, in fact, immunize presidents, but rather deleted their de facto common-law immunity and created a legal rubric for their fair prosecution.
In other words, Smith’s new indictment proved presidential prosecution is not just possible, but presidential prosecution now follows a prescription.
Finally, consider two implications. First, the lying media, currently gushing over Prosecutor Smith’s new superseding indictment, isn’t apologizing (but should) for the tsunami of demented stories it breathlessly ran about how awful the Supreme Court decision was, just two months ago. E.g.:
Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to apologize for their moronic misinterpretation of the immunity standard. Corporate media is worse than useless.
But second, and maybe even more importantly, consider that, if Trump wins, other presidential prosecutions will be on the menu. Jack Smith just drafted the roadmap.
Keep it coming, Jack!
Lawfare failed. Assassination failed. Try lawfare again and, if that fails…