Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, accused special counsel Jack Smith of filing “lawsuits” against former President Donald Trump in order to influence the 2024 election, as he filed a superseding indictment in the election interference case Tuesday.
While Vance said he didn’t read the entire document, he said: “It looks like Jack Smith doing more what he does, which is filing these lawsuits in an effort to influence the election.”
“The reason the Supreme Court threw out his lawsuit is because they said it implicated the president’s official acts — of course, which the president has immunity in conducting those official acts. And yet, Jack Smith tried to redefine Mike Pence as —from the vice president to the running mate, as if somehow changing those words in an indictment undercuts the fact that Mike Pence is still the sitting vice president, and it still directly implicates the president’s official acts,” Vance told reporters.
The superseding indictment states on page 3: “The Defendant tried-but failed-to enlist the Vice President, who was also the Defendant’s running mate and, by virtue of the Constitution, the President of the Senate who plays a ceremonial role in the January 6 certification proceeding.”
As CNN reported, prosecutors are arguing that Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence fell outside the scope of his official duties.
“I don’t think that it changes anything legally,” Vance said. “It’s clearly an effort to try to do more election interference from Jack Smith. He should be ashamed of himself, and it’s one of the reasons why we have to win, because he should not be anywhere near power.”
Vance said the Supreme Court was “actually pretty sensible” in their immunity ruling, which granted Trump partial immunity from the election subversion case.
