Former President Donald Trump heralded his lawyers’ sitdown Thursday with special counsel Jack Smith as advancing his cause even as a new federal indictment loomed.

In a post on his Truth Social page, Mr. Trump said his legal team had a ‘productive meeting’ with Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, where a grand jury is mulling an indictment against Mr. Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and attempts to overturn the 2020 presidenital election.

“My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers and that an indictment would only further destroy our Country,” Mr. Trump wrote.

He also pushed back on a news report that the former president’s lawyers were told to expect an indictment during the meeting.

“No indication of notice was given during the meeting — Do not trust the Fake News on anything!,” Mr. Trump wrote.

The meeting occurred the same day the federal grand jury convened at a federal courthouse in Washington to continue their probe into Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election and the events surrounding the Jan. 6 riot. Jurors meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays but have not met in over a week, spurring speculation that an indictment could be imminent.

Mr. Trump, who is the leading 2024 candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, confirmed last week that he received a letter from the Justice Department that he was a target of the grand jury probe. He said that he anticipated “an arrest and indictment” after receiving the target letter.

Federal prosecutors wrote in the letter that Mr. Trump could be charged with violating a federal law enacted to crack down on post-Civil War voting intimidation.

Mr. Smith’s letter also referred to three criminal statutes, including conspiracy to defraud the government and obstruction of an official proceeding.
If the grand jury does pull the trigger on an indictment, it would be the third time this year Mr. Trump was hit with criminal charges.

He is currently facing charges for alleged campaign finance violations in Manhattan for hush-money payments in 2016 to women who claimed extramarital affairs with Mr. Trump and for alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.