New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on Tuesday revealed how former President Donald Trump reacted to receiving a letter from special counsel Jack Smith saying he is “a TARGET” in the Justice Department’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election.
Haberman said Trump posted about the letter on his Truth Social platform in an effort to get ahead of the story after he received a news inquiry about it.
“He wanted to control the narrative,” she told CNN’s “The Source,” in a similar way to what he did with his previous two indictments, first in New York over his role in a hush money payment scheme and then in the Justice Department’s case over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Trump wrote he got the “HORRIFYING NEWS” on Sunday, adding that Smith gave him “a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.”
Smith did not answer reporters’ questions about the news when he was spotted in a Washington Subway chain.
Haberman added that Trump wasn’t “especially chatty with people in his circle about this over the last two days.”
“For somebody who’s not great at keeping other people’s secrets, he can be very good at keeping his own,” Haberman said.
Haberman added that Trump was “somewhat cranky” on the plane ride to Iowa, where he spoke for the first time ahead of a possible third indictment.
“He’s obviously not happy,” she said.
Trump recognizes the charges he already faces in the documents case, as well as new ones arising from the Jan. 6 probe and from the Georgia special grand jury investigation into efforts to undo Joe Biden’s win there, could carry jail time.
“That is weighing on him very seriously,” Haberman told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.