Former President Donald Trump was enjoying some positive momentum following the less-than-impressive Democratic National Convention, thus, as if on cue, Special Counsel Jack Smith sought to disrupt that with the unveiling of a newly revised criminal indictment last week.

On Tuesday, Trump indicated through a filing that he would plead not guilty to the superseding indictment that was little more than a scaled-back rehash of Smith's original 2020 election-related charges against the Republican nominee, according to the Washington Examiner.

Coming on the heels of the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling in July that effectively pulled the rug out from under the special prosecutor, the new indictment reeks of desperation, appears to violate policies against election interference, and signals a likely impending end to Smith's partisan crusade against the former president.

Smith files new indictment following immunity ruling

SCOTUSblog reported last week that Special Counsel Smith filed the revised indictment against former President Trump in response to the Supreme Court's July 1 ruling which stated that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for their core constitutional duties, have presumptive immunity for all other "official acts," and that their official acts can't be used as evidence against them in a prosecution for allegedly criminal unofficial acts.

Given those constraints, Smith's new indictment against Trump is several pages shorter than the initial indictment because the prosecutor was forced to drop multiple allegations that were undeniably based on core duties and official acts.

Yet, the criminal charges remain the same -- conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights -- and Smith is now arguing in the revised indictment that those alleged criminal acts aren't covered by presidential immunity.

In a single-page filing, per the Examiner, the former president declared, "I, President Donald J. Trump, the above-named defendant … do hereby waive my right to be present at Arraignment and I authorize my attorneys to enter a plea of not guilty on my behalf to each and every count of the superseding indictment."

"I further state that I have received a copy of the superseding indictment and reviewed it with my counsel," the brief filing added.

Trump's furious response to newly revised indictment

Shortly after the new indictment was released, former President Trump posted on his Truth Social account, "It is DOJ policy that the Department of Justice should not take any action that will influence an election within 60 days of that election -- but they just have taken such action."

"Voting starts on September 6th, therefore the DOJ has violated its own policy -- Election Interference. All of these Comrade Kamala/Biden Hoaxes should be immediately DISMISSED!" he added.

Prior to that, Trump wrote in part in a series of lengthy posts, "In an effort to resurrect a 'dead' Witch Hunt in Washington, D.C., in an act of desperation, and in order to save face, the illegally appointed 'Special Counsel' Deranged Jack Smith, has brought a ridiculous new Indictment against me, which has all the problems of the old Indictment, and should be dismissed IMMEDIATELY."

"For them to do this immediately after our Supreme Court Victory on Immunity and more, is shocking," he continued. "I’ve also been informed by my attorneys, that you’re not even allowed to bring cases literally right before an Election -- A direct assault on Democracy! This is an unprecedented abuse of the Criminal Justice System."

"This is for Third World Countries and Banana Republics, not for the U.S.A.!" Trump said. "As Jack Smith knows, the whole case should be thrown out and dismissed on Presidential Immunity grounds, as already ruled unequivocally by the U.S. Supreme Court. Smith rewrote the exact same case in an effort to circumvent the Supreme Court Decision."

"No Presidential Candidate, or Candidate for any Office, has ever had to put up with all of this Lawfare and Weaponization directly out of the Office of a Political Opponent," he added. "They’ve Weaponized local D.A.s and Attorney Generals, and anybody else that will listen, to Interfere with the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election -- Never been done before. This is now Kamala’s Weaponized System against her Political Opponent."