hey and welcome back to the Michael Cohen Show as we're on our journey to 250,000 subscribers so thank you thank you all for subscribing and if you like what you see share it with a friend all right special counsel Jack Smith just issued a superseding indictment against Trump with new with new grand jury all right I want to take you for a quick moment to a clip to a video clip of Ellie Hony breaking it down on CNN let's go to that clip break this down for us after the great reporting from Kaitlin there going through very quickly uh this filing what exactly did Jack Smith do here was this expected so Phil what Jack Smith has done here is pair down the original indictment dramatically in an effort to save it so the original indictment you'll probably recall charged a broad-ranging conspiracy that essentially entailed a whole bunch of different buckets of conduct by Donald Trump pressure campaign on Mike Pence his pressure campaign on the justice department his attempt to pressure State officials the fake elector scheme well in this new indictment which is called a superseding indictment it now essentially replaces the old indictment the part about the justice department is out the part about Mike Pence is out and all we're left with in this superseding indictment is the charges relating to Trump's effort to pressure state and local officials and to submit false slates of electors now if you're wondering why would Jack Smith pair back cut back his own case the answer is because of the US Supreme Court's immunity ruling which came down in July and in that ruling the Supreme Court said that many of the things that Donald Trump did while he's in office including specifically his interactions with doj some of his public Communications likely his interactions with the vice president the Supreme Court said those things are likely going to be immune and therefore add of this case and so Jack Smith has now made a tactical decision I'm not going to fight the battle to keep those things in the case I'm going to take them out of the case I'm going to focus on the pressure that Donald Trump put on State and local officials and the fake elector scheme and I'm going to try to move ahead with those pieces of the case still in place look let me be clear about something Ellie and I know each other very well in fact we're we're friendenemies right we're friends but we have very sometimes very different opinions especially as it relates to me never nice to me but I do have to say this Ellie knocked out of the park he's exactly correct on all aspects there was no point in Jack Smith fighting about something that most probably would have been thrown out by the court as a direct result of this ridiculous Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity all right what I want to do for a quick second before I give you my full reaction I want to take you through this new indictment the one thing I don't agree with Ellie honig on is the fact that a lot of of it is paired down not as much as you would think but here's where it goes despite having lost in the talk about the election there the defendant they're referring to Donald J Trump who was also the incumbent president was determined to remain in power so for more than two months following election day on November 3rd of 20120 the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome determined fraud in the election and that he had actually won these claims were false and the defendant knew that they were false but the defendant used his campaign to repeat and widely disseminate them anyway to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate create an intense National atmosphere of mistrust and anger and erode public faith in the administration of the election go the other next paragraph shortly after election day the defendant also pursued unlawful means because what we had previously read in paragraph two while despicable it's not illegal and that's where paragraph four comes in shortly after election day the defendant also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subvert the election results in so doing the defendant perpetrated three criminal conspiracies Jack Smith lays it out first a a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty fraud and deceit to impair obstruct and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected counted and certified by the federal government in violation of 18 USC 371 he goes on to layout number two a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6th Congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified that is the certification proceeding in violation of 18 USC 1512 suben k and number three a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted in violation of 18 USC 241 each of these conspiracies which built on the widespread mistrust the defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud targeted a Bedrock function of the United States federal government the nation's process of collecting Counting and certifying the results of the presidential election that's the federal government function now finally in furtherance of these conspiracies the defendant tried but failed to enlist the vice president who was also the defendants running mate and by virtue of the Constitution the president of the Senate who plays a ceremonial role in the January 6 certification proceeding so let me explain this further using what Ellie honig was saying and accurately so what Jack Smith did is he paired down the initial indictment and he took out all the parts that included the doj and others that would fall presumably under the presidential immunity act what doesn't fall under the presidential immunity Act are the three crimes that I just read for you enumerated by Jack Smith so the question becomes well why would he do this what's the benefit the benefit is these crimes are inarguable these crimes are not difficult for Jack Smith to prosecute and to Prevail upon so why bog yourself down in issues that you can and most probably will lose because of the Supreme Court's recent mistaken ruling and the answer is you wouldn't so what Jack Smith did was right what he's doing is he's ensuring that Donald Trump is held accountable for these actions and instead of allowing the entire case to dissipate to Fall by its Wayside instead of that he paired it down for the sole purpose of ensuring that this case now a fourth indictment remaining indictment because now it's five in total that Donald Trump has to now appear in court down the road and be held accountable for these actions so good for Jack Smith now I just want to bring this into context of the upcoming the upcoming presidential election we have two very very different candidates we have one who is a prosecutor and another one who is a felon a felon based upon the Manhattan district attorney case the one that I was the key witness in and you have a felon you have a prosecutor versus a felon and it's not that he's a felon one time there are four now remaining indictments that this man is going to have to deal with even if he becomes president of the United States in 2025 now he'll do all sorts of things to choke them out could to be a little harder in the state case versus the federal case because his attorney general will certainly quash those but the state cases like the fonny Willis Case or the Manhattan da case those he cannot he cannot pardon himself only the governor can pardon a state case the president can only pardon a federal case so there's a lot going on here but why why in the world would anybody in their right mind vote for somebody who is so marred in litigation in prosecution in indictments is this who we want to represent us is this who we think is the right man to take us into the future this is a man who is not running in order to do good for the United States of America that we know this is not a man who gives a about our constitution or our Democratic Republic this is a man who is running for the presidency for the sole purpose of protecting himself and enriching his family brand plain and simple enriching himself at the cost at the expense of us the American people and it's why I will end this episode by saying what I say every single time make sure you vote Harris walz in 2024 hey everyone first of all thanks for watching I mean we're going to be posting daily episodes with reactions and talking about politics we'll be talking about everything in fact so please like And subscribe join us on this journey