Is another indictment coming? Donald Trump receives a target letter in election probe: The former president may be facing his third indictment of the year after he received a target letter in relation to the probe of his post-election behavior in 2020
Donald Trump Is In Hot Water…
Former President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has received a target letter, indicating that he is likely to be indicted, again.
The letter came from Special Counsel Jack Smith, informing the former president that he is a target of the investigation involving his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“WOW! On Sunday night, while I was with my family, having just arrived from the Turning Point event in Florida, where I won the Straw Poll against all other Republican candidates with 85.7%, with all polls showing me leading in the Republican Primary by very substantial numbers, almost everyone predicting that I will be the Republican Nominee for President, and as I am leading Democrat Joe Biden in the polls by a lot, HORRIFYING NEWS for our Country was given to me by my attorneys,” Trump said in a run-on sentence statement posted to Truth Social.
“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.”
It’s not clear what is so special about the letter arriving on a Sunday night. However, the news did not leak until Trump posted about it on his social network on Tuesday morning.
Trump goes on to state that he “turned down” Attorney General Merrick Garland for the United States Supreme Court, although Garland had been nominated by President Barack Obama and there was never much chance Trump would re-nominate him to the court.
Trump is also potentially facing charges in Georgia, also related to his attempts to overturn the election.
Per CNN, Trump had received a target letter from Smith earlier this year, before he was indicted for his handling of classified documents. The new letter shows that Trump himself is a target of the investigation, rather than just those around him. It’s not clear what the timetable is for such an indictment being handed down.
The Hill, last week, had quoted legal experts stating that it was very likely Trump would face charges for his parts in the efforts to overturn the election. Published at Just Security by several experts, the “model prosecution memo” stated what charges Trump is likely to face.
“Trump knew he lost the election but did not want to give up power, so he worked with his lawyers and others on a wide variety of schemes to change the outcome. Those schemes included creating fraudulent electoral certificates that were submitted to Congress, implicating statutes such as 18 U.S.C. § 371, which prohibits conspiracies to defraud the United States in the administration of elections,” the memo says.
The former president could also face charges for the “fake electors” scheme.
“When all the other schemes failed, Trump and his lawyers ultimately concentrated on using the false electoral slates to obstruct the constitutionally mandated congressional certification of the election on January 6, implicating statutes such as 18 U.S.C. § 1512, which prohibits obstruction of an official proceeding. Their primary objective was to have Vice President Mike Pence in his presiding role on that day either block Congress from recognizing Joe Biden’s win at all or at least to delay the electoral count.”
And the memo also says that the insurrection itself could lead to charges.
“When Pence refused, Trump went to his last resort: triggering an insurrection in the hope that it would throw Congress off course, delaying the transfer of power for the first time in American history. This implicated statutes such as 18 U.S.C. § 2383, which prohibits inciting an insurrection and giving aid or comfort to insurrectionists. (Section 2383 is rarely charged, and as we discuss below, this is a charge DOJ will use only with extreme caution. We believe there is sufficient evidence to pursue it—as did the Select Committee in making a criminal referral of Trump under that statute—but prosecutors may make different choices. Much will depend on the evidence the Special Counsel develops.)”
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Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
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