Former President Trump said he expects to be indicted out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Jan. 6 on Tuesday evening, and slammed the looming charges as election interference.
‘I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.’ Trump posted on his Truth Social. ‘Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long?’
He added: ‘Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!’
This would be the second federal indictment the former president faces out of Smith’s investigation. Trump, who leads the 2024 GOP presidential primary field, has already pleaded not guilty to 37 counts related to his alleged improper retention of classified records from his presidency.
Those charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. Trump was charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment out of that probe last week.
This would be the second time in U.S. history that a former president has faced federal criminal charges.
Trump had announced he received a target letter from the Justice Department, which also asked that he report to the federal grand jury. Trump said he anticipated ‘an arrest and indictment.’
Smith was investigating whether Trump or other officials and entities interfered with the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election, including the certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol during a joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College results in favor of President Biden.
The House of Representatives drafted articles of impeachment against him again and ultimately voted to impeach him on a charge of inciting an insurrection for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — making him the first and only president in history to be impeached, and ultimately acquitted, twice.
The Senate voted to acquit, but had Trump been convicted, the Senate would have moved to bar the 45th president from holding federal office ever again, preventing a 2024 White House run.
Trump has also pleaded not guilty to 34 counts in New York in April stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation. Trump is accused of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign.
Elsewhere, prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga. are looking to wrap up their criminal investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.
