Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has been told he’s a goal within the Jan. 6 criminal investigation by special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump is the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Smith already has criminally charged Trump with about three dozen counts related to retaining classified documents when he left the White House.
Trump also suggested he may soon face indictment for the Jan. 6 probe, which is concentrated on Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss within the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. Trump posted his statement on his Truth Social account.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the probe confirmed to NBC News that Smith sent Trump a goal letter within the case.
Such letters are sent by the Department of Justice to provide people the prospect to testify before a grand jury after the DOJ determines there may be substantial evidence linking them to against the law.
“Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I’m a TARGET of the January sixth Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a really short 4 days to report back to the Grand Jury, which nearly at all times means an Arrest and Indictment,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.
Trump wrote that he was given what he called the “horrifying news” on Sunday evening by his lawyers.
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment.
A hearing within the classified documents criminal case is ready for Tuesday in Florida federal court.
Trump’s lawyers have asked that any trial in that case happen after the 2024 election. Smith’s prosecutors oppose that bid.
Trump is individually under criminal investigation by a Georgia state prosecutor for his try to get election officials there to reverse his loss to Biden in Georgia.
A spokesman for Rudy Giuliani, the lawyer who led Trump’s efforts to undo his 2020 election loss, said he has not received a goal letter from Smith. Lin Wood, a lawyer and Trump ally, also said he has no received such a letter.
Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer for Bernard Kerik, the previous Recent York City police commissioner who worked with Giuliani within the election reversal effort, told NBC that Kerik has not been given a goal letter.
– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger
