Former President Donald Trump visits with campaign volunteers at the Grimes Community Complex Park, in Des Moines, Iowa., on July 18.Charlie Neibergall/The Associated Press
Donald Trump says he expects to be indicted yet again, this time on charges related to his role in the push to overturn the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Trump said Tuesday he has received a letter from Jack Smith, the federal special counsel examining interference in the transfer of presidential power, warning him that he is the subject of a grand jury investigation. Such target letters are typically precursors to criminal indictment. This would mark the third time the former president has been indicted.
The nature of any new charges against Mr. Trump have not been made public. In a social-media post, he said he was given four days from Sunday to respond to the target letter.
He also said a fourth indictment is likely, this one stemming from a separate investigation related to allegations of 2020 election meddling in the state of Georgia. He lashed out at what he called the weaponization of law enforcement for the purposes of interfering with his bid to mount a third presidential campaign.
“Under the United States Constitution, I have the right to protest an Election that I am fully convinced was Rigged and Stolen,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump has already been indicted in New York on 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records of payments made to an adult film actress, and he has been indicted federally on 37 felony counts related to retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort after he left the White House. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases, although legal scholars say his defence in the documents case is likely to be difficult given the weight of evidence that has already been made public, which includes an audio recording from July, 2021, of him describing “highly confidential” papers in his possession.
“From a pure legal perspective, I think the Mar-a-Lago case regarding classified documents is easier for the government to prove,” said Joseph Moreno, a former federal prosecutor.
But, he added, “Symbolically, the Jan. 6 case is probably more important to the government, because I think many people feel that Trump should face some consequences for his role after the 2020 election.”
Mr. Trump has already argued that he merely exercised his right to free speech in his comments before Jan. 6, and in the hours immediately preceding the Capitol Hill riot.
But Mr. Trump played a pivotal role in the turbulent aftermath of the 2020 election, a period of intense democratic disputes in which Republicans across the country used lawsuits, demonstrations and even an attempt to authorize fake electors to keep him in office.
The effort to cling to power was “a punch in the face to the Constitution, and deserves a vigorous prosecution,” said Ty Cobb, a prominent lawyer who has served as an assistant U.S. attorney, special counsel and, briefly, part of Mr. Trump’s White House legal team.
On Tuesday, Michigan’s Attorney-General filed criminal charges against 16 fake electors in that state. (Electors represent their states in casting the ballots that formalize the election of a president.)
In the federal special counsel’s investigation of Mr. Trump, possible charges include obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, Mr. Cobb said.
Such a case would be an effort to “validate the existing Constitutional process and prevent this from ever happening again,” he added.
Republicans have sought to undermine the cases as nakedly political, pointing to the popularity of Mr. Trump, who hopes for a 2024 presidential rematch against President Joe Biden.
“If you noticed recently, President Trump went up in the polls and was actually surpassing President Biden for re-election. So what do they do now? Weaponize government to go after their number-one opponent,” Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, told reporters Tuesday.
Matt Gaetz, a Republican Congressman who is a hard-line supporter of Mr. Trump, pledged legislation to defund Mr. Smith’s special counsel office. Speaking on an online broadcast, Mr. Gaetz accused Democrats of “attacking our democracy and engaging in election interference.”
Mr. Smith, who has no registered political affiliation, was appointed by U.S. Attorney-General Merrick Garland in November to prosecute federal crimes related to interference in the transfer of power or certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.
His probe also produced the Mar-a-Lago charges against Mr. Trump, making Mr. Smith the first federal prosecutor to secure an indictment against a former president.
Together, the cases against Mr. Trump stand to test, and perhaps uphold, the limits on the power of the U.S. presidency.
The legal principles they will test could further delineate “what the proper role of the president is and what due deference ought to be given to the president and his claims,” said Mary Cheh, a constitutional scholar at the George Washington University Law School who has also served on the Washington municipal council.
That could involve profoundly thorny questions. Some of the cases could make their way to the Supreme Court. The time involved for such a process could stretch beyond the next presidential election. “Then we’ll have to take up the question – which has not been answered – about whether a president can pardon himself, assuming he’s prosecuted and found guilty,” Prof. Cheh said.
“All of these things raise such fascinating questions. They’re not run-of-the-mill kind of criminal cases. They’re extraordinary.”