Former United States President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, July 18, that he had received a letter from the prosecutor informing him that he was personally targeted by the federal investigation into the assault on the Capitol in Washington, January 6, 2021 “Jack Smith, Joe Biden’s nutcase Justice Department prosecutor, sent a letter… stating that I am the TARGET of the grand jury investigation into Jan. 6,” he wrote on his network, Truth Social.
The stormy politician, candidate for the 2024 presidential election, is already indicted by the courts in the case of confidential White House documents and for suspicious payments to a former porn star.
The 2024 Republican primary favorite said Tuesday he has been given “four tiny days” to report to the grand jury, a randomly selected group of citizens with sweeping investigative powers. Donald Trump assured that this procedure “almost always” leads to an indictment.
In his text, the 77-year-old former president called the investigation a “witch hunt”, further “election interference” and a “political use” of justice. “Nothing like this has ever happened in our country,” he also said.
On January 6, 2021, thousands of supporters of Donald Trump had sown chaos and violence in the Capitol in Washington, temple of American democracy, when elected officials certified the victory of his rival, Joe Biden, in the presidential election.
Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday that he had “the right to challenge an election that [he is] convinced was rigged and robbed.” The billionaire also assured that he was targeted because of the upcoming presidential election.
Trump has ‘failed in his duty as Commander-in-Chief’
A parliamentary committee, dissolved earlier this year by the new Republican majority, investigated the role of the former president that day. In high-profile hearings, this Democratic-majority panel claimed it had whitewashed its supporters and “failed its duty as commander-in-chief” during the assault.
In its final report, released in December 2022, the commission found that Donald Trump should never be able to hold new public office. Its members also recommended that criminal proceedings be launched against him by the federal justice system, in particular for calling for insurrection. Donald Trump did not specify on Tuesday the possible charges against him in this investigation.
The former president is already indicted in the federal investigation into confidential documents, also led by Jack Smith. He is accused of having refused to return documents that he would have kept when he left the White House, despite legal injunctions. He pleaded not guilty to charges against him in mid-June – including “unlawful withholding of national security information”, “obstructing justice” and “false testimony” – and faces a historic trial. and potentially very damaging to his 2024 presidential campaign.
Donald Trump has also been indicted by New York State justice for several charges of accounting fraud, in connection with a payment made before the 2016 presidential election aimed at silencing an actress of X movies, Stormy Daniels. He would have paid her the tidy sum of 130,000 dollars so that she does not make public a past relationship.
A Georgia prosecutor must also announce by September the result of her investigation into the pressure he exerted to try to change the result of the 2020 presidential election in this southern state.