US: Donald Trump hit by a new federal indictment

Donald Trump was hit by a new federal indictment on Tuesday over his efforts to reverse the result of the 2020 presidential election in the United States in which he lost to Joe Biden.

Prosecutors have revised their approach after the US Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from being criminally prosecuted.

The fresh indictment, which has been trimmed from 45 to 36 pages long, retains the same four charges against Trump, as in an earlier version, but has removed material potentially affected by the presidential immunity ruling by the top court.

However, it retains the same core, stating that Trump lost in 2020 but "was determined to stay in power" by subverting the election outcome.

New indictment takes out key text

The Supreme Court ruled in July that a former president enjoys broad immunity and cannot be prosecuted for official acts carried out while in office.

However, an ex-president can be pursued for unofficial acts.

The ruling threw into doubt the historic prosecution of the ex-president.

The altered indictment removes a section that had accused Trump of trying to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to overturn his election loss, an area of conduct for which the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, deemed Trump immune from prosecution.

The new efforts to indict Trump come three days before Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges against the 78-year-old, and lawyers for the former president, had been set to file a schedule for pretrial proceedings.

Trump referred to the new indictment as an "act of desperation" that was part of a "witch hunt" against him.

jsi/sri (AFP, Reuters, AP)