Special counsel files new indictment against Trump over 2020 election

Move does not substantially change criminal case but protects it in wake of July supreme court immunity ruling

The justice department filed a new indictment against Donald Trump on Tuesday over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The maneuver does not substantially change the criminal case against him but protects it in the wake of a July US supreme court decision ruling saying that Trump and other presidents have immunity for official acts, but not unofficial ones.

Today, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment, charging the defendant with the same criminal offenses that were charged in the original indictment," lawyers for Jack Smith, the special counsel handling the case, said in a filing that accompanied what is known as a superseding indictment.