WASHINGTON (CN) — A third indictment may be imminent after former President Donald Trump revealed Tuesday that he received notice from the Justice Department that he has been targeted in the special counsel’s investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump said the letter from special counsel Jack Smith came on Sunday and gave him four days to report to the grand jury.
“Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before, or even close,” Trump said in a statement posted to his social site Truth Social.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment on Trump’s claims.
Calling the potential indictment the political weaponization of law enforcement, Trump said it was a “very sad and dark period for our nation.”
It is not clear if Trump was notified of what charges he could be facing in connection to efforts to the riot, which a congressional investigation previously found that Trump had engineered as part of a bid to stay in office after losing reelection.
An indictment is not absolute based on Trump's purported receipt of a letter from prosecutors. A similar patter occurred, however, when a federal grand jury indicted Trump in Miami last month.
Trump faces 37 federal charges in Florida for retaining hundreds of classified documents in his private residence Mar-a-Lago after he left office in 2021. The majority of the charges stem from willfully retaining national security documents but he also faces obstruction charges. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
A pretrial hearing in the classified documents probe is set for Tuesday. The public hearing will likely cover procedures for handling the documents involved in the case and efforts by Trump’s team to delay the trial until after the 2024 election. The trial is set for December.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also investigating Trump’s involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. Willis has said charges from the grand jury could come next month. Trump fought to halt Willis’ investigation, but the state high court shot him down Monday in a unanimous opinion.
Follow @KelseyReichmann
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