Trump Says He Received Target Letter in Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 Case

WASHINGTON—Federal prosecutors told former President Donald Trump’s legal team that he is a target of their investigation into efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 election, a sign that he is likely to be indicted in the case.

The notification deepens Trump’s legal peril as the 2024 presidential race heats up, with Trump as the front-runner for the Republican nomination. The former president already faces a separate federal prosecution on charges that he mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House, criminal charges in New York and the prospect of an additional indictment by a local prosecutor in Georgia.

In a post on his Truth Social platform Tuesday morning, Trump said special counsel Jack Smith sent his legal team a letter Sunday indicating he could face charges in the probe examining Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol. People familiar with the matter confirmed that the Justice Department had sent the letter.

Trump said he had been given “a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.” He attacked Smith as “deranged” and accused the Biden administration of trying to undermine him as he makes another bid for the White House.

A spokesman for Smith declined to comment. A Trump spokesman didn’t respond to a question about the timing of his grand jury appearance.

Smith’s investigation into attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election has been escalating, as his office prosecutes Trump on a separate, 37-count indictment alleging he retained classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them.

At the first pretrial hearing in that case, held on Tuesday in a Florida courtroom, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon didn’t set a trial schedule but said she would promptly issue a written decision.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, at times seemed skeptical of the Justice Department’s request to start a trial in December. Trump has sought to have it delayed beyond the 2024 election.

“These matters often require more time given the amount of confidential information at issue,” Cannon said.

It couldn’t immediately be determined what charges Trump might face in Smith’s far-ranging election-related probe, or whether anyone else in his orbit received similar letters from the Justice Department letting them know they are under an investigation that is nearing its end. Several high-profile lawyers associated with Trump, including Rudy Giuliani, said they haven’t received such correspondence.

Grand jurors are still hearing testimony from other witnesses in the election probe, with additional appearances scheduled this week. Smith’s team in recent weeks has taken a growing interest in the role of lawyers and other figures involved in legal efforts aimed at reversing his defeat, The Wall Street Journal reported, recently questioning Giuliani for at least eight hours. Among other things, prosecutors have been seeking to learn whether the lawyers, including Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and others, were acting on Trump’s orders when they took various steps to try to change the election outcome.

A particular focus of Smith’s probe has been whether anyone in Trump’s orbit committed crimes by sending fake slates of electors to Congress. The grand jury has issued subpoenas to local officials in several battleground states seeking communication between election officials and Trump, his campaign and his allies.

Prosecutors on Smith’s team have also scrutinized efforts to fundraise off false claims of election fraud. Like the inquiry in the fake-elector scheme, the focus on fundraising has raised questions about where political activity might be so detached from the truth that it crosses the line from First Amendment-protected speech to potentially criminal conduct.

Trump also faces criminal charges in New York stemming from the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into his role in a hush-money payment that was made during the final stretch of the 2016 election to a porn star who alleged she had an affair with him.

A local prosecutor in Georgia, meanwhile, said she plans to present criminal charges in August related to efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election there. Trump has denied wrongdoing in the New York and Georgia matters, and accused prosecutors of pursuing him for political reasons.

“This witch hunt is all about election interference and a complete and total political weaponization of law enforcement,” Trump said in his Truth Social post on Tuesday, writing in all capital letters.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has repeatedly denied that the Justice Department’s investigations are politically motivated. He has said he appointed Smith, whom he called a “veteran career prosecutor,” as special counsel to insulate the probe and give it a degree of independence from the agency’s political appointees.

Despite his compounding legal problems, Trump has remained the clear front-runner for the GOP nomination, as he has portrayed himself as a victim of a broad effort to keep him out of office. He has seen fundraising spikes surrounding his two indictments and his Republican rivals have generally joined in criticizing the prosecution.

Trump and other Republicans have also played down the actions of his supporters on Jan. 6, and the former president created a song with a choir of jailed defendants. In June, he appeared at a fundraiser for some of the defendants. Trump has said he would issue pardons for a large number of the more than 1,000 people charged, more than 330 of whom have been sentenced to incarceration.

Other presidential candidates have faced questions about their stance on the issue, creating uncomfortable moments. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s closest challenger, was asked during an event Tuesday in South Carolina about the news and said while he hadn’t seen details, he believes the government has been weaponized.

Trump “should have come out more forcefully” to stop the attack on the Capitol, DeSantis said, “but to try to criminalize that, that’s a different issue entirely. We want to be in a situation where you don’t have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail. And that unfortunately is what we’re seeing now.” The crowd applauded.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) painted the news that Trump received a target letter as purely political. “I guess, under a Biden administration…you’d expect this,” he said. With Trump strong in recent polls, he added, the administration is seeking to “weaponize the government to go after their No. 1 opponent. It’s time and time again. I think the American public is tired of this.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D., Calif.), a member of House Democratic leadership who served on the Jan. 6 Select Committee, said Republicans’ objections to the target letter are ridiculous. “I would argue this is why Donald Trump’s running for president, because he knew this was coming. And you know, he doesn’t want to be held accountable,” Aguilar said.

—Jan Wolfe, Siobhan Hughes and Lindsay Wise contributed to this article.

Write to Sadie Gurman at [email protected] and Alex Leary at [email protected]