Donald Trump says he is target of criminal probe into 2020 US election

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Donald Trump has said he is the target of a criminal probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election, raising the possibility he could face fresh federal charges in the coming days.

In a development he described as “horrifying”, Trump said he had received a letter from the Department of Justice informing him he was a target of an investigation into the run-up to the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Trump said the letter from special counsel Jack Smith, who is handling the investigation, had given him “a very short four days to report to the grand jury which almost always means an arrest and indictment”. The DoJ declined to comment.

During federal grand jury investigations, prosecutors typically notify targets before they seek an indictment in order to give them a chance to testify, according to DoJ guidelines.

Fresh criminal charges would deepen the legal risks facing Trump as he campaigns for another term as president. Last month, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with 37 criminal counts relating to his handling of classified government documents. That indictment, filed days after Trump announced he had received a letter from the DoJ, was also brought by Smith.

Trump has vowed to press on with his campaign despite his mounting legal challenges.

In a lengthy post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump described the January 6 probe as a “witch hunt” that was “all about election interference and a complete and total political weaponisation of law enforcement”.

He accused Joe Biden, US president, of unfairly targeting him because he is the president’s “number one political opponent, who is largely dominating him in the race for the presidency”.

In an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday, Trump said the potential charges “bother[ed]” him, but insisted they were part of a pattern of “election interference” by the Biden administration.

“The DoJ has become the weapons for the Democrats,” he said. “They try and demean and diminish and frighten people, but they don’t frighten us, because we are going to make America great again.”

Trump remains the undisputed frontrunner in an increasingly crowded field of Republicans vying for the party’s nomination to challenge Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

According to the FiveThirtyEight average of national polls, roughly half of Republican voters say they are supporting Trump in the primaries. Florida governor Ron DeSantis is running a distant second, with the support of just over 20 per cent of Republican voters. Other challengers, including Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence, trail in the single digits.

Several of Trump’s Republican rivals leapt to his defence on Tuesday, underscoring the former president’s grip on the party and its grassroots base. A significant share of Republican voters endorse Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

Speaking at a campaign event in South Carolina, DeSantis said Trump “should have come out more forcefully” to stop the January 6 attack on the Capitol. But he criticised the prospective criminal charges and accused Democrats of political interference, saying: “I think that we want to be in a situation, where, you know, you don’t have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail.”

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, said during a briefing that Biden “respects the Department of Justice, their independence. He has been very, very steadfast . . . making sure that the rule of law comes back in this administration.”

Asked whether there were contingency plans in place to address any violence in response to new criminal charges against Trump, Jean-Pierre said: “We are always prepared. I don’t have anything to share beyond that.”

Trump could face more legal woes in the coming weeks in the state of Georgia, where local prosecutors are also investigating alleged interference in the 2020 elections by the former president and others. If prosecutors there decide to bring their own indictment stemming from a separate special grand jury probe, those potential charges could be filed later this summer.

Trump in April pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a case brought by the Manhattan district attorney. He was accused of covering up “hush money” payments made to silence a porn actress ahead of the 2016 presidential election.