Jack Smith Indicts Trump For Exercising First Amendment Right To Question Election Results
As part of an ongoing campaign of lawfare, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment on Tuesday against former President Donald Trump alleging, in part, that Trump’s First Amendment right to question the outcome of an election created “mistrust and anger” and eroded “public faith in the administration of the election.”
“Each of these conspiracies — which built on the widespread mistrust the Defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud — targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election,” the indictment alleges.
Smith alleges Trump “erode[d] public faith in the administration of the election” despite the fact that Smith’s own Justice Department has vowed to undermine secure elections, sued Arizona for trying to require people prove they are citizens to register to vote, and used a federal statute to charge hundreds of protesters that the Supreme Court later ruled was used in an over-broad capacity.
The superseding indictment comes weeks after the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling in June finding that presidents have “absolute immunity” for “actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority” and “at least presumptive immunity” for all “official acts.” The court remanded several questions relating to Smith’s initial indictment against Trump back to the lower court to determine whether they constitute an official act.
The new indictment is nine pages shorter than Smith’s original, 45-page indictment that had the same charges. The indictment changes the allegations that underpin the charges to comport with the Supreme Court’s ruling, striking its language about Trump’s alleged conspiracy with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to send letters inquiring about potential voter fraud to select states. The Supreme Court found Trump is “absolutely immune from prosecution for the alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials.”
The new indictment charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
But what underpins the new indictment is Smith’s claim that Trump and his co-conspirators “made knowingly false claims” that were “unsupported” and “objectively unreasonable” about alleged fraud in the election.
Smith then claims Trump didn’t heed the DOJ’s warning not to exercise his right to free speech.
“The Defendant was on notice that his claims were untrue,” the indictment further alleges. “The Defendant continued to make false claims nonetheless, with deliberate disregard for the truth, including through his Twitter account.”
As I previously wrote, Smith’s entire argument is that “Trump knew his claims that the 2020 election was stolen were false” and therefore Trump deserves jail time.
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department is hellbent on chilling political-related speech, further evidenced by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s boast last Friday that his office has prosecuted nearly 1,500 Americans for protesting the 2020 election. Garland then warned that his department would use lawfare against any others who dare raise concerns about the administration of the upcoming election.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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