Trump says he is target of special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into efforts to overturn 2020 election
Donald Trump has claimed he received a letter informing him that he is a target in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Posting to the Truth Social platform, Trump said he received “horrifying news” from his attorneys on Sunday night. Trump wrote:
Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.
Target letters are typically given to subjects in a criminal investigation to put them on notice that they are facing the prospect of indictment.
Key events
Donald Trump is not expected to attend today’s hearing in Florida, where US district judge Aileen Cannon will preside over a pretrial conference in Trump’s trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
The former president is scheduled to travel to Iowa today, where he is taping a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
His co-defendant, Walt Nauta, may attend Tuesday’s session, sources have told CNN.
A person close to Donald Trump confirmed to the New York Times that the former president had received the so-called target letter.
The letter indicates that yet another indictment of Trump could be imminent, although it is not clear what kind of charges he could ultimately face.
It would be the second time special counsel Jack Smith has notified Trump that he is a target in a federal investigation. In June, Trump received a letter from Smith before he was indicted by a grand jury in Florida for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House and his alleged efforts to obstruct the government’s investigation.
A spokesperson for Smith did not immediately return an email seeking comment, according to AP.
Donald Trump, who said he received a letter on Sunday from special counsel Jack Smith informing him that he is a target in the 6 January investigation, claimed “nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before”.
Posting on Truth Social, the former president wrote in all-caps:
This witch hunt is all about election interference and a complete and total political weaponization of law enforcement!
Trump says he is target of special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into efforts to overturn 2020 election
Donald Trump has claimed he received a letter informing him that he is a target in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Posting to the Truth Social platform, Trump said he received “horrifying news” from his attorneys on Sunday night. Trump wrote:
Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.
Target letters are typically given to subjects in a criminal investigation to put them on notice that they are facing the prospect of indictment.
Ahead of Tuesday’s session, special counsel Jack Smith’s team asked US district judge Aileen Cannon on Monday to enter a protective order over classified information the government plans to begin handing over in discovery.
The order would, in part, restrict the ability of defense lawyers to share with Donald Trump and his co-defendant and aide, Walt Nauta, classified information in the case. Prosecutors wrote:
The defense may not disclose classified information to the Defendants unless that same information has been previously disclosed to the defense by the Defendants or provided by the government with markings indicating it may be disclosed to the Defendants.
In seeking the order, prosecutors wrote that defense lawyers have told them “that they intend to object to certain provisions of the proposed protective order, but did not specify any such provisions.”
Prosecutors also said they had not heard from Trump’s counsel since a 14 July request for a call with defendants in order to see if it was possible to address the Defendants’ concerns”.
The special counsel’s office also said on Monday that it has handed over a second batch of unclassified discovery, which includes documents related to evidence obtained through subpoenas and search warrants, witness interviews. and other forms generated by the FBI.
At issue during today’s arguments at the first pretrial conference in former president Donald Trump’s criminal case concerning the mishandling of classified documents is a the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa.
The 1980 statute governs how classified information is handled by the parties in a criminal prosecution. The law aims to strike a balance between a defendant’s right to access evidence that prosecutors intend to use in a case, against the government’s interest in safeguarding sensitive and secret information, according to AP.
In Trump’s documents case, US district judge Aileen Cannon must agree beforehand that any proposed use of Cipa would not infringe on the former president’s right to a fair trial.
Cases tried under Cipa legally require more precautions and tend to take more time to get to trial than a typical criminal case, according to the Washington Post. This means they can be extremely beneficial to any defendant seeking to delay a trial.
“It is a very complicated lengthy process,” Barry Pollack, a defense lawyer, told the New York Times.
Often, there are hearings not open to the public where the attorneys and the judge will literally go through documents line by line deciding which sentences and which individual words can be used in open court and which ones cannot.
Trump document case judge may signal whether trial could be pushed beyond 2024 election
Good morning, US politics blog readers. US district court judge Aileen Cannon, the federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents, is scheduled to meet with prosecutors and the former president’s attorneys for the first time this afternoon.
The public hearing, set to take place at Cannon’s courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, is the first one she has held in the case that began when federal prosecutors, led by special counsel Jack Smith, indicted the former president last month. Earlier court sessions were held in Miami by federal magistrate judges.
Tuesday’s session is expected to focus on administrative procedures for handling classified government materials, but today’s hearing could also provide insight into whether Cannon – a Trump appointee – will push to resolve the trial before or after the 2024 presidential election. Cannon previously gained significant public attention when she intervened last year in the Justice Department’s investigation.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 2pm EST.
Meanwhile, a US national is believed to be in North Korean custody after crossing into the country “without authorization”, according to the US-led UN Command overseeing the area.
The body tweeted that the person was on a tour of the border village of Panmunjom – which is located inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) – and that the UN Command was working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident. It gave no further details on the person’s identity or why he crossed the border.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
-
10am: House majority leader Steve Scalise, House majority whip Tom Emmer and Republican conference chair Elise Stefanik will hold a news conference after a closed GOP meeting.
-
10.45 am: House Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar, vice chair Ted Lieu, Mark Takano, Raul Ruiz and Mikie Sherrill will hold a news conference after the House Democrats’ meeting.
-
1.15pm: President Joe Biden will meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office.
-
1.30pm: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will hold a briefing.
-
3pm: The Senate will meet to take up Rachel Bloomekatz’s nomination to become a US circuit judge. There will also be a vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the National Defense Authorization Act.
-
4pm: Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis will be interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper, his first discussion with a major news organization other than Fox News.
-
5pm: Biden will meet with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to discuss Ukraine.