Trump lawyers told to expect indictment of former president

Lawyers for Donald Trump were told Thursday by prosecutors to expect an indictment against the previous president in connection together with his efforts to reverse his loss within the 2020 election, NBC News reported.

Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro met Thursday morning in Washington, D.C., with prosecutors for Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and were informed of the planned indictment, in response to NBC.

Later Thursday, Trump in a social media post wrote, “My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining intimately that I did nothing improper, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country.”

“No indication of notice was given throughout the meeting — Don’t trust the Fake News on anything!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, told CNBC in a text message, “NBC report is inaccurate.”

At around the identical time because the defense lawyers’ meeting with prosecutors, the grand jury that would soon vote on criminally charging Trump assembled in Washington federal court.

Multiple members of that panel were seen entering the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse at around 8:30 a.m. ET, NBC reported.

Various those anonymous grand jurors were spotted within the cafeteria after which going to the grand jury room on the courthouse’s third floor, in response to NBC.

Early Thursday afternoon, members of the U.S. Marshals Service, who’re answerable for security at federal courts, met with officials from the U.S. Park Police and Washington, D.C., police department on the Prettyman courthouse, NBC reported.

Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal probe of Trump and his allies related to their attempts to stop President Joe Biden from being confirmed because the winner of the 2020 race by the Electoral College and Congress.

That effort was based on false claims, spread broadly by Trump and his allies, that Biden only won consequently of widespread ballot fraud.

Trump last week revealed that Smith had told his lawyers on Sunday that the previous president was a criminal goal of that investigation and had been offered a four-day window to testify to the grand jury.

Trump, who declined the offer, noted that such notifications are typically made before the recipient is indicted.

On Wednesday, Trump said he would testify at any trial if he’s indicted.

“We’ll have a good time on the stand with all of those people who say the Presidential Election wasn’t Rigged and Stollen,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY!!!”

On Thursday, a joint fundraising committee, Trump Save America, for the second day in a row sent out an email citing his potential indictment.

“Any moment now, Crooked Joe’s corrupt ‘Justice’ Department could yet again INDICT yours truly on federal charges despite being a completely innocent man,” Trump says in the e-mail. “But that implies that in only just a few days’ time, we now have the chance to cement this moment within the history books because the moment the American people PROVED they might never bend the knee to the Left’s tin-pot dictatorship.”

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Smith, declined to comment to CNBC on Thursday.

Lawyers for Trump, and a spokesman for him, didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.

Smith in early June obtained a grand jury indictment of Trump in Florida federal court on several dozen criminal counts related to his retention of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago club after he left office in early 2021.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case, which is scheduled to go to trial next 12 months.

He has accused Smith and the DOJ of charging him and investigating him in an effort to harm his probabilities of winning the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and defeating Biden.

That is breaking news. Check back for updates.