Former US President Donald Trump has stated that he expects to be detained as a result of a federal investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot and efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election.
In a social media post, he stated that special counsel Jack Smith informed him on Sunday evening that he was a target of their investigation.
Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter that he had been ordered to appear before a grand jury, “which almost always results in an arrest and indictment.”
The special counsel did not respond promptly to media requests.
This would be Mr. Trump’s third indictment for alleged criminal offenses, including 37 charges filed in June by Mr. Smith’s team accusing the president of mishandling classified documents.
In New York, Mr. Trump has also been charged with falsifying business records related to payments of hush money to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. In this case, he is scheduled to stand trial in March 2019, while the president’s attorneys continue to dispute a trial date for the classified document case.
Mr. Trump declared in a post on his Truth Social platform that he was sent a letter “stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation and giving me only four days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always results in an arrest and indictment.”
Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, designated Mr. Smith as special counsel shortly after Mr. Trump announced his candidacy for president last fall.
His team was tasked with investigating Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office, as well as managing a vast federal investigation into the attack on the US Capitol and Mr. Trump’s and his advisers’ attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Mr. Smith’s investigation has included interviews with dozens of high-ranking Trump administration officials and advisers, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, as well as state officials who claim Mr. Trump exerted pressure on them to disregard the election results.
Mr. Garland charged the special counsel with investigating efforts to “interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote”.
According to public statements made by some witnesses before the grand jury convened by the special counsel, questions have centered on Mr. Trump’s team’s efforts to organize “fake electors” who would claim that the former president defeated Joe Biden in seven key battleground states.
State prosecutors in Atlanta, Georgia, are also investigating the former president on similar grounds, concentrating on whether he illegally pressured state officials there to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory. In a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in December 2020, Mr. Trump requested that Georgia officials “find 11,780 votes” to shift the state in his favor.
In August, Georgia prosecutors are anticipated to decide whether to indict Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump is the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, with double-digit polling advantages over his closest competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. This advantage has grown over the past four months, despite the announcement of his first two indictments.
He has frequently portrayed the investigations, as well as the indictments, as an attempt by his political opponents to prevent his return to the White House.
According to the former president’s campaign staff, both indictments led to an increase in campaign contributions. Mr. Trump raised more than $17 million for his campaign between April and June, with millions more deposited into an account that could be used to fund his legal defense team.
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