Tuesday, August 27, 2024

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1/ Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in a superseding indictment in the case involving an alleged conspiracy to obstruct the results of the 2020 election. The superseding indictment retains the four charges against Trump from Smith’s original indictment, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, but recalibrated the case to adjust to the Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents enjoy sweeping immunity from prosecution for their official conduct. “Today, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment, ECF No. 226, charging the defendant with the same criminal offenses that were charged in the original indictment,” the Justice Department said. “The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions.” There’s no chance the case will be tried before November’s election – and if Trump wins, he’s expected to pressure his appointees at the Justice Department to drop the case. (ABC News / Washington Post / CNN / Politico / NBC News / New York Times / Bloomberg / Associated Press / NPR)

2/ Democrats sued the Georgia State Election Board over new election rules that could lead to post-election “chaos” in the state in November. The lawsuit, filed in Georgia state court by the Democratic National Committee, the Georgia Democratic Party, and Democratic members of several county election boards, argues that the rules give local election officials a broad license to “hunt for purported election irregularities of any kind, potentially delaying certification and displacing longstanding (and court-supervised) processes for addressing fraud.” The state election board voted 3-2 to pass rules that give election officials authority to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results, and requires that county election officials be given “all election related documentation” before certification. “At minimum, these novel requirements introduce substantial uncertainty in the post-election process and – if interpreted as their drafters have suggested – invite chaos by establishing new processes at odds with existing statutory duties,” the lawsuit argues. (New York Times / CNN /

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