Former President Trump is bracing for a federal indictment related to the riot at the U.S. Capitol and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election after prosecutors named him as a target of a grand jury probe in Washington.
The so-called target letter from special counsel Jack Smith, which was disclosed by Mr. Trump on social media, did not say what charges the former president would face from the sprawling investigation, which has probed a variety of plots by Mr. Trump to reverse his election defeat in 2020.
The potential charges stemming from the riot would almost certainly be the most serious charges against Mr. Trump.
“This is the case the government most wants to win and they are going to pull out all the stops and do whatever they can do to win,” said Joseph Moreno, a former federal prosecutor and FBI consultant. “They want Trump to face consequences for Jan. 6. The government wants this case so bad because it’s symbolic for them.”
If the grand jury indicts Mr. Trump as expected, it would be the third time this year he has been hit with criminal charges. A single charge was unprecedented for a former president or a front-running candidate for the White House.
Mr. Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site that his attorneys notified him Sunday of the letter. Mr. Trump said he was given four days to “report to the grand jury,” a likely prelude to indictment and arrest.
“Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the grand jury, which almost always means an Arrest and indictment,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Legal analysts said Mr. Trump should not testify before the grand jury and warned that it was a trap.
“It would be walking into an ambush,” said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Miami. “The government has already made up its mind to indict Trump, and anything he would say to contradict their narrative might cause them to tack on charges of false statements and perjury.”
Anything a witness says in a grand jury testimony can be used as evidence to support criminal charges and defense attorneys are not allowed to object or present evidence countering prosecutors’ narrative.
Mr. Trump’s legal team has not formally responded to the letter but Mr. Trump is not expected to testify to the grand jury.
Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Christopher Kise confirmed the target letter in a Florida court hearing Tuesday afternoon. They appeared before a federal judge in the classified document case, which was also brought by Mr. Smith. They gave no details about the letter but said its shows that Mr. Trump is being besieged by prosecutors.
On Truth Social, the ex-president fumed against Mr. Smith and said the specter of a criminal indictment amounts to election interference, pointing to his wide lead in early 2024 polling.
“Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before, or even close,” he wrote.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, declined to comment.
Mr. Trump already faces 37 federal charges in a separate case alleging he illegally mishandled classified documents.
In March, a Manhattan grand jury indicted him on state charges alleging he falsified records to cover up hush money payments in 2-16 to women who alleged they had extramarital affairs with him. Mr. Trump denied their claims.
In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis is overseeing a probe of Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results in that state and has made moves suggesting the former president could be indicted next month. Ms. Willis said she will make a changing decision in August.
Also Tuesday, Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for Mr. Trump in 2020 by submitting false certifications to overturn Mr. Biden’s election victory. Mr. Trump wasn’t charged in that case.
It is the Jan. 6 case that presents the most legal peril for Mr. Trump.
“In the first two cases — the one in New York and the classified document case — no one was hurt and there was no indication security was breached,” said Mr. Coffey. “In this case, there were deaths associated with Jan. 6, and House and Senate members were confronted with violence. That is going to have a qualitative impact.”
During the Jan. 6 riot, four pro-Trump demonstrators died. One was shot and killed by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose and two others died of natural causes. A Capitol Police officer died of a stroke following the riot, and four other officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months.
Mr. Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November to investigate actions by Mr. Trump and his allies in the wake of the 2020 election.
Mr. Trump said the contest was rigged against him and that Congress should send back electoral vote counting to certain states. The claims reached a tipping point on Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol as lawmakers tried to certify President Biden’s victory.
Witnesses that have appeared before the grand jury have been grilled for hours about meetings Mr. Trump held to stop President Biden’s election win. Former Vice President Mike Pence, and Trump White House figures Stephen Miller, Pat Cipollone and Mark Meadows are among those who have testified before the panel.
While it’s unclear which criminal charges Mr. Trump would face, if prosecutors do indict, legal analysts say it might not be a more serious charge such as seditious conspiracy or insurrection. That’s because prosecutors will want to pursue easier, more provable charges such as obstructing an official proceeding or making false statements, or falsifying documents related to a plot to secure fraudulent election certifications from seven battleground states.
“This is the case prosecutors most want to bring because they feel it has the most teeth and resonates with people,” said Mr. Moreno, the former federal prosecutor. “The government only has to prove one charge so it can be the most mundane of all the charges so they can claim victory.”
Mr. Trump could be charged with seditious conspiracy. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who is staring down an 18-year prison sentence for his role in the Jan. 6 attack, is facing the same charges.
“They’re going to do the same thing to President Trump that they did to me,” Rhodes, who did not enter the Capitol during the riot, recently told The Washington Times.
Democrats from the now-defunct House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot said the target letter confirms their findings that Mr. Trump masterminded a coup. The committee forwarded their conclusions to the Justice Department for use in their investigation.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who served on the Jan. 6 committee, said the former president deserved to be the target of a criminal probe.
“If this is where the evidence takes the prosecutors, then I’m glad that our justice system is working,” said Mr. Raskin, who also led the prosecution of Mr. Trump on impeachment charges for inciting the Jan. 6 riot.
Mr. Trump was impeached by the Democrat-run House for inciting the riot but acquitted by the Republican-run Senate.
Republicans lashed out at the Justice Department, accusing the Biden administration of weaponizing the nation’s law enforcement apparatus against a political rival.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, defended Mr. Trump’s actions in the wake of the election as a justified attempt to root out fraud. She said an indictment would be unfounded and that Mr. Trump would be cleared in court.
“We are worse than Russia. We are worse than China. We are worse than some of the most corrupt third-world countries, and this needs to end. It’s an absolute lie,” Ms. Greene said. “President Trump has [been] proven innocent time and time and time again, and he’ll be proven innocent again.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican and chairwoman of the House Republican Conference said it was “yet again another example of Joe Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice targeting his top political opponent Donald Trump.”
Mr. Trump’s Republian foes said the possible indictment confirmed that the ex-president is unfit for office.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a staunchly anti-Trump Republican running for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, challenged Mr. Trump casting himself as a victim.
“The real victims of Jan. 6 were our democracy, our rule of law, and those Capitol Police officers who worked valiantly to protect our Capitol,” Mr. Hutchinson said.
Mr. Trump’s legal troubles haven’t hobbled his frontrunner status in the 2024 GOP race. He has used the charges to successfully rally his supporters, saying he is the victim of a two-tiered justice system.
The situation is forcing his 2024 rivals into an awkward position. They are hoping to leapfrog Mr. Trump in the primary while trying not to alienate Mr. Trump’s fervent base.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the top GOP challenger to Mr. Trump, took a balanced approach Tuesday by saying Mr. Trump could have done more to stem the violence on Jan. 6 but also criticizing Democrats for weaponizing the Justice Department.
“I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn’t do anything while things were going on. He should have come out more forcefully, of course,” Mr. DeSantis said. “But to try to criminalize that, that’s a different issue entirely, and I think that we want to be in a situation where … you don’t have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail. And that unfortunately is what we’re seeing now.”
Nikki Haley, another Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Trump administration, said the letter is proof Republicans need to move on from Mr. Trump.
“We can’t keep dealing with this drama, we can’t keep dealing with the negativity, we can’t keep dealing with all of this,” she said on Fox News.
“It’s going to keep on going,” she said, adding that Republicans “need a new generational leader.”
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