Jack Smith argues Trump isn't immune to charges in DC election case

Special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday submitted a new filing in his DC election case against former President Donald Trump, arguing that he is not immune from prosecution in light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity.

Smith originally charged Trump with four counts related to his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election. Trump had argued he was immune form prosecution due to presidential immunity. The Supreme Court, earlier this year, found that the president enjoys immunity for constitutional acts and presumptive immunity for official acts. Smith subsequently filed a revised indictment and has asked the court to determine that Trump's alleged conduct does not fall within the scope of presidential immunity.

"The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct. Not so," he asserted. "Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one. Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted—a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role."

Smith made the argument in a 165-page filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the revised charges and the case is not expected to proceed to trial before the election.

The case is separate from Smith's prosecution of Trump over his handling of classified materials, which Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed earlier this year.

Trump has denied wrongdoing in both of his federal criminal cases and insisted that they are part of a broader political effort to use the Department of Justice to derail his 2024 bid for the White House.