WASHINGTON – Donald Trump on Tuesday revealed he was sent a letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith notifying Trump that he is a target in an investigation related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol.
A target letter is a document that prosecutors send to people under investigation, inviting them to testify about their actions and warning them that they could be subject to arrest and indictment.
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Former federal prosecutors said the letter shows the Justice Department will bring charges against Trump for criminal felonies.
“In a normal case, sending a target letter signifies someone is firmly in DOJ’s sights. Sending a target letter to the former president is virtual confirmation Jack Smith intends to charge him,” said Joyce White Vance, the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.
But Justice Department target letters are almost invariably very general, without any kind of specific charges a potential defendant might be facing, according to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, who has been closely following the various Trump investigations.
Prosecutors do that for reasons both strategic and tactical, Kirschner told USA TODAY.
Federal prosecutors don’t want to tip their hand and give away too much of what they intend to charge the recipient of the target letter, he said. They want to be able to keep their options open so that they can broaden the charges – especially in a conspiracy case like the one Trump is likely facing – if and when more evidence comes to light.
“The target letter doesn’t have to go into the details of what he potentially faces, it could just be, ‘You are the target of a grand jury investigation investigating crimes surrounding what happened on January 6th, or the run up to January 6th. Period. It’s that simple,” Kirschner said.
Trump said on Truth Social he has four days to report to the grand jury.
Trump received a similar notice before he was indicted last month in a case related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021. Smith is also overseeing that investigation.
Contributing: David Jackson
