Former President Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is outraged over a new superseding indictment filed by special counsel Jack Smith against the former president, reported NBC News on Tuesday — though, by his own admission, he hasn't read the whole document.
"I don't think that it changes anything legally. Looks like Jack Smith doing more of what he does, which is filing these sort of lawsuits in an effort to influence the election," Vance said, according to the report.
As Vance deplaned in Nashville, Tennessee, he acknowledged he had not read the full indictment.
Vance said Smith "should be ashamed of himself, but it’s one of the reasons why we have to win, because he should not be anywhere near power."
"Of course, the reason the Supreme Court threw out his lawsuit is because they said it implicated the president’s official acts," Vance added.
The Supreme Court did not throw out Smith's case, it ruled that presidents have a presumption of immunity for official acts and ordered District Judge Tanya Chutkan to review the case along that standard.
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Smith filed the new indictment, regarding the election interference plot in 2020 that led up to Jan. 6, in response to the Supreme Court's ruling removing the aspects of the case that center on Trump's alleged ordering of the Justice Department to engage in corrupt acts. Proving such a thing would be impossible with the Supreme Court's new immunity parameters. Other aspects of the case, including those that center on evidence of bad acts Trump engaged in as a candidate, remain in the indictment.
Additionally, the special counsel is in the process of appealing the dismissal of his other case against Trump, regarding classified documents removed and hidden at Mar-a-Lago, after a Trump-appointed judge decided Smith was improperly appointed.
