FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN NEW YORK – Trump’s indictment in federal investigation by special prosecutor Jack Smith into classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago may be close. Smith, a Justice Department appointee, and other colleagues met with former president i’s lawyers on Mondayinforming them that Trump is the target of the criminal investigationaccording to US media.
This kind of notification is discretionary; allows the person under investigation, if he wants, to present evidence or testify. Many see it as a sign of the imminent decision – some write in hours or days, others next week – of the choice that Smith will have to make on the indictment of Trump on charges of violation of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice. Questioned by Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, Trump denied that he was told that he will be indicted.
The former president also reiterated this on Truth Social: “Nobody told me he’s going to be prosecuted and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done nothing wrong.” He then accused the Justice Department and the FBI of targeting him for years for political reasons. His lawyers have tried — to no avail — to slow down a possible indictment by filing a request to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to investigate whether the attorney for a key witness has won a White House nomination as a judge. Prosecutors working with Smith questioned dozens of witnesses in the past months (and until yesterday in Miami: the indictment, hypothesizes the Washington Post, could take place in Florida or simultaneously in Florida and Washington).
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon, Trump’s former guru, has been ordered to testify before a jury in Washington in the other investigation conducted by Smith, that into the former president’s attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 vote. Bannon has already been sentenced to four months in prison (sentence suspended pending appeal) for refusing to testify on these same matters to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on Congress last year.