Former US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had received a letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith informing him that he was the target of the federal investigation into the events leading up to the attack on the Capitol in Washington January 6, 2021.
In a message published on his social network Truth, in which he provided no evidence of the communication, the Republican claims that this process “almost always” leads to a formal allegation or allegation. In his usual bombastic style, Trump is “the top-ranked Republican candidate” for the 2024 primary, “with 85.7% of the vote,” according to the statement, and is by far the leader in the polls [por delante] von Biden,” explains how on Sunday night, while he was with his family after returning from a campaign rally in Florida, he received “terrible news” from “mad” Jack Smith, the Justice Department’s special prosecutor for political cases, a former president
In the letter, the prosecutor tells Trump in capital letters in the Republican’s message that he is “TARGET” of an investigation and gives him “a brief window of four days to report to the grand jury, which almost always means an arrest.” “. and accused”. It would be the third indictment against the former president, following charges against Manhattan prosecutors in April for paying bribes to a porn actress and against Florida last June for withholding classified information after leaving the White House. The former president is expected to decline an invitation to appear before the grand jury again, as he did in the New York case.
Although Smith’s office declined to comment, if confirmed, it would be the second time the special counsel has informed the former president that he is likely to be charged, this time in connection with the criminal investigation into the events leading up to the Capitol storming have a horde of Trumpists. The first warning came in June for handling confidential national defense material after he left office and allegedly obstructing justice.
Defense attorneys and federal prosecutors are scheduled to appear in Florida Tuesday before US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is hearing the Mar-a-Lago Papers case. Trump, the favorite for the Republican nomination against Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, was accused last month of illegally withholding national defense documents after leaving office in 2021 and of conspiring to overthrow the effort of the government to regain them.
Smith is leading the investigation into both cases, which, along with the alleged attempts at vote-rigging in Georgia, represent the most serious trials Trump has faced, all of which are politically rooted. He is also under investigation for tax offenses (accounting irregularities at his company which have already earned the company a conviction even if he has evaded charge) and other more private offences, although with possible political implications, such as his accusation in April for bribing a porn actress to silence a porn actress to prevent a scandal that would spoil his 2016 run for the White House. Last May, he was civilly sentenced to pay five million dollars for molesting writer E. Jane Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her. The cases coordinated by Attorney Smith are investigated as part of criminal proceedings, hence the seriousness of the cases.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.
subscribe to
It is unclear what aspect of the investigation into efforts to obstruct the post-election transfer of power in 2020 could be related to Trump’s foreseeable new indictment, i.e. what charges would be brought against him. At least two major juries have heard witnesses to his efforts to remain in power, and the inquiry has looked into a number of machinations by the magnate and his allies in an attempt to prevent power being vested in the legitimate election winner. A grand jury in federal court in Washington has heard testimony from former Trump administration officials, including former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Vice President Mike Pence.
According to the senior officials, Trump harried them in the final months of his tenure with unsubstantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud. All of this led to the attack on the Capitol on the same day that Biden’s election victory was to be confirmed, a normally formal process that brought the U.S. to the brink of a coup d’état that day, according to the Congressional Special Committee investigating as fact at the time.
Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.