Former President Donald Trump criticized the Justice Department on Tuesday, calling special counsel Jack Smith’s additional accusations “election interference.” According to Trump, the new charges by Smith come in the aftermath of a Supreme Court decision affirming that presidents are largely shielded from legal action.
Trump specifically faces charges of obstructing a governmental procedure (two counts), conspiracy to defraud the U.S. (one count), and conspiracy against rights (one count).
Trump voiced his concern on X, stating, “It is DOJ policy that the Department of Justice should not take any action that will influence an election within 60 days of that election – but they just have taken such action,” regarding the timing of the new indictment with the onset of mail-in voting in North Carolina.
He elaborated, “Voting starts on September 6th, therefore the DOJ has violated its own policy – Election Interference. All of these Comrade Kamala/Biden Hoaxes should be immediately DISMISSED!”
Trump previously stated on Truth Social that the indictment “is a direct assault on democracy,” expressing, “This is an unprecedented abuse of the Criminal Justice System. The case has to do with ‘Conspiracy to Obstruct the 2020 Presidential Election,’ when they are the ones that did the obstructing of the Election, not me.”
He further mentioned an alleged admission by Mark Zuckerberg around the concealment of information, highlighting, “They cheated on the Election, and they go after me for ‘cheating on the Election.’ Interestingly, this comes at the exact same time as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has admitted to concealing massive amounts of information, such as Hunter Biden’s Laptop from Hell, which is a direct acknowledgment that the 2020 Presidential Election was MANIPULATED and RIGGED by the DOJ. What they are doing now is the single greatest sabotage of our Democracy in History.”
The special counsel’s office responded that the updated indictment stems from the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States, which clarified the limits of prosecuting presidents.
The office stated, “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 in Trump v. United States.”
