Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he expected to face criminal charges imminently as part of a Justice Department probe into his actions after the 2020 election, including the events leading up to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
Trump is widely expected to be indicted in the probe, which is being led by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. Lawyers on Trump’s legal team met with DOJ prosecutors last week after Trump received a letter informing him that he was a target of a criminal investigation – both typically signs that an indictment is looming.
Trump has attempted to preempt the news, fundraising for his presidential campaign off of the possibility of impending charges and making the inquiry a central part of his stump speeches.
“I assume that an Indictment from Deranged Jack Smith and his highly partisan gang of Thugs, pertaining to my ‘PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY Speech, will be coming out any day now, as yet another attempt to cover up all of the bad news about bribes, payoffs, and extortion, coming from the Biden ‘camp,’” Trump said in a post on his social media site, Truth Social, on Monday, suggesting that the investigation was a politically targeted attempt by President Joe Biden to direct attention away from scrutiny over his son Hunter’s business dealings.
“This seems to be the way they do it. ELECTION INTERFERENCE! PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT!” he said.
Smith, a career prosecutor who for years has handled cases involving human rights abusers, organized crime and politicians of both parties, took over an investigation in November into Trump and his allies’ attempts to subvert the results of the 2020 election, including their actions leading up to the violence at the Capitol. Justice Department investigators have reportedly called dozens of witnesses to testify in front of a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.
They are said to have focused on a scheme to try to put forward fake electors in states where President Joe Biden beat Trump in an attempt to overturn Biden’s Electoral College win. Investigators have also reportedly sought testimony about Trump’s mindset and actions leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection and have also looked into efforts to fundraise off of claims that the election was rigged.
The grand jury is expected to meet again on Tuesday, and law enforcement officials in Washington are already reportedly preparing for the possibility of an indictment.
Trump is also facing 40 felony counts in connection with a separate criminal investigation – also led by Smith – into his mishandling of classified documents after he left office and obstruction of justice. That case is scheduled to go to trial in May.
And a probe in Georgia involving whether Trump attempted to change that state’s presidential election results after the 2020 race is also expected to result in charges.
