CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said on Tuesday that special counsel Jack Smith “cut back” on the election case against Republican nominee Donald Trump due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
Smith filed a superseding indictment on Tuesday including the same four charges initially handed down on August 1, 2023, in relation to his alleged interference in the 2020 election. Honig said Smith removed several parts of the original indictment that would likely be considered “official acts” and is solely charging Trump with his alleged attempts to “pressure state and local officials” and “submit false slates of electors.”
“Now, if you’re wondering why would Jack Smith pair back, cut back his own case, the answer is because of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling which came down in July,” Honig said. “In that ruling, it said that many of the things that Donald Trump did while he was in office, including specifically his interactions with DOJ, his public communications, likely his interactions with the [former] vice president [Mike Pence], those things are likely going to be immune and therefore out of this case.”
“So therefore Jack Smith made a tactical decision, ‘I’m not going to fight the battle to keep those things in the case. I’m going to take them out of the case, I’m gonna focus on the pressure that Donald Trump put on state and local officials and the fake electors scheme and I’m going to try and go ahead with those pieces of the case still in place,” Honig continued.
The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that presidents have immunity from prosecution for “official acts” taken in office on July 1st. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that the analysis of what is considered an official act is best left up to the lower courts.
Smith charged Trump in August 2023 with “Conspiracy to defraud the United States,” “Conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 proceedings” and “A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”
“I think this is a tactical retreat of sorts,” Honig continued. “I think Jack Smith has made the decision, given the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, ‘I don’t want to spend the time and the resources to fight for inclusion of those other parts of the case. So what Jack Smith has done is retreat to the safest ground to the part that the Supreme Court actually said is probably okay, is probably not immune. They said it’s very likely not the job of the president to interact with and pressure state and local officials.”
Honig added that Trump’s legal team will likely appeal the new indictment and argue the remainder of the case is immune. The legal analyst said there is a “0 percent chance” that the case will be tried before the election on November 5th.
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