Trump pleads not guilty to revised federal indictment in 2020 election case

Lawyers for Donald Trump entered a not guilty plea on his behalf on Thursday in a Washington, D.C., courtin relation to a revised indictment filed in a federal election subversion case.

Special counsel Jack Smith's team filed last week to strip out certain allegations of the original indictment handed down in 2023, after a momentous U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer that set out limits on when former presidents could be subject to criminal prosecution.

The former U.S. president faces four charges related to plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election based on unfounded allegations of voter fraud. Trump's weeks-long campaign of denying his election loss to Joe Biden preceded a riot on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.

The justices in July ruled that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for the exercise of their core constitutional duties and are presumptively immune from prosecution for all other official acts. Smith's team responded to the ruling with a revised indictment last week that removed references to Trump's efforts to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to remain in power, an area of conduct for which the Supreme Court said Trump is immune.

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This federal case has essentially been frozen its last hearing was in December 2023 as the Supreme Court justices took up the immunity question.

Trump currently faces three outstanding criminal cases, with a fourth recently dropped. While he has denounced each case as "election interference," given his status asthe Republican presidential nominee for the Nov. 5 election, all of the investigations leading to the indictments began before he announced his campaign in late 2022.

WATCH |Breaking down the implications of the Supreme Court immunity ruling:

Is Trump now 'above the law'? The U.S. Supreme Court ruling, explained

3 months ago

Duration 12:34

In a victory for former president Donald Trump, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for some 'official acts' but may still be prosecuted for 'unofficial acts' once theyve left office. About That producer Lauren Bird explains what the ruling means for the legal challenges against Trump, and just how far presidential immunity extends.

Sentencing in N.Y. case scheduled this month

Neither the prosecution nor Trump's team, which is seeking to dismiss the federal charges, envisions a trial happening before the election. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is tasked with determining which of the acts alleged in the indictment can remain part of the case in light of the Supreme Court opinion.

"We may be dealing with an illegitimate indictment from the get-go," Trump attorney John Lauro argued.

Chutkan bristled at Lauro's reference to the November election at another point.

"I understand that there is an election," the judge replied. "I've said before that the electoral process and the timing of the election is not relevant here. The court is not concerned with the electoral schedule."

Trump became the first U.S president to be convicted of a crime this year, on charges involving falsifying business records related to hush-money payments during and after the 2016 election. He is scheduled to be sentenced in that New York case on Sept. 18, though a court hearing two days earlier will determine, among other issues, whether that date is kept.

Trump also faces election interference charges in a sprawling racketeering case in Georgia, but legal wrangling over the charges involving the former president and others, as well as the authority of the Fulton County prosecutor overseeing the case, has delayed matters.

Should Trump return to the White House with an election win in November, he is expected to try and use his authority to order the Justice Department to end its pursuit of the federal case, though what would happen to the state-level cases in New York and Georgia is not immediately clear.

Trump also faced charges of unlawfully retaining documents, many of them classified and some top secret, after he left the White House in early 2021. The federal judge in the case dismissed the charges this summer, but the government is appealing, arguing she erred in her legal reasoning for the dismissal.

Judge Aileen Cannon ruled, over a year into the case, that the appointment of Smith was unconstitutional.

Trump, not required to attend the D.C. court hearing on Thursday, was at a campaign event in New York. He is set to debate Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday in Philadelphia.