Trump lawyers meet prosecutor ahead of expected indictment
Special Counsel Jack Smith (L), and the target of his investigations, former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump
Washington – Donald Trump said his lawyers met with Justice Department officials on Thursday ahead of an expected indictment over his alleged efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election.
The former US president, who is a frontrunner in next year’s election, said his team was not told when any indictment would be issued, after NBC said the lawyers were informed it could come as early as today.
US media said Trump’s attorneys met with Special Counsel Jack Smith, who leads the investigations into Trump that arose from the January 6, 2021 attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.
Smith also leads the probe into Trump’s illegal hoarding of highly classified documents, for which he was indicted in June.
“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 of me would only further destroy our country,” Trump said on social media.
“No indication of notice was given during the meeting — Do not trust the Fake News on anything!”
– ‘Witch hunt’? –
On July 18 Trump said he had received a letter from Smith saying he was a target of the January 6 probe, focused on the efforts to prevent certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
The letter reportedly cited three federal criminal statutes: conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding and deprivation of rights.
Those could relate to schemes to pressure several states to change their vote counts so that Trump would be named the winner, and to create “fake electors” that would lead to Congress naming Trump as the overall election victor over Biden.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the investigation as a political “witch hunt” by a Biden-controlled Department of Justice.
He claims without evidence that he lost the election due to widespread voting fraud.
CNN reported that Trump has resisted his lawyers meeting with Smith.
But it said one of the issues likely discussed was the logistics of having the former president appear for an arraignment at the federal court in Washington when an indictment is filed.
Trump’s indictment last month on illegally keeping top secret defense and intelligence documents came three days after his attorneys met with Smith on June 5.
Even then, the indictment was kept sealed, and news of it came only after Trump himself said it was issued.
It was unsealed only on June 13, the day Trump appeared in federal court in Miami to have the charges against him read.