Trump Jan. 6 indictment could be forthcoming as former president renews warnings
Kaelan Deese
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A federal grand jury investigating efforts to subvert the 2020 election and block the transition of power could soon deliver an indictment against former President Donald Trump.
The grand jury has been gathering typically on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington. Members of the grand jury were seen by reporters early Tuesday morning, one day after Trump posted to Truth Social predicting his charges could come “any day now.”
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“I assume that an Indictment from Deranged Jack Smith and his highly partisan gang of Thugs, pertaining to my ‘PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY Speech, will be coming out any day now, as yet another attempt to cover up all the bad news about bribes, payoffs, and extortion, coming from the Biden ‘camp.’ This seems to be the way they do it. ELECTION INTERFERENCE! PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT!” Trump wrote Monday.
Anticipation for the charges in the investigation has been rising ever since Trump revealed on July 16 that he received a target letter in the Jan. 6 investigation. On Tuesday, a reporter from Politico said there was “high anxiety” at the courthouse with a “heavy media presence but no news yet to speak of.”
For his existing classified documents case in Florida federal court, Trump was sent a letter on May 19 from special counsel Jack Smith‘s team, and his indictment in that case came on June 8, roughly 20 days after his initial receipt of the letter.
Attorneys for the former president met in the district on Thursday with members of Smith’s office as the grand jury was also meeting that day. Trump’s lawyers also met with prosecutors in the classified documents case on June 5, just three days before a grand jury voted to bring charges.
While no grand jury vote happened on Thursday, Smith’s office revealed that evening he was bringing a superseding indictment in the classified documents case based out of Florida. Prosecutors included a new charge of willful retention of documents and two new obstruction charges, alleging Trump worked with two co-defendants to attempt to delete Mar-a-Lago’s surveillance footage.
Trump aide Walt Nauta was already one of Trump’s co-defendants, but the superseding indictment brought in Carlos de Oliveira, an employee of Mar-a-Lago, as his new co-defendant.
On Monday, De Oliveira made his first appearance in federal court in Miami on Monday, but his arraignment was delayed until Aug. 10 due to a lack of a local attorney. He was released on a $100,000 bond and ordered to turn over his passport, according to court filings.
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Outside the scope of the federal government, another indictment for Trump is potentially building in Fulton County, Georgia, where District Attorney Fani Willis has told court officials she could bring charges in her separate investigation as early as the first half of August.
A grand jury reportedly has multiple indictments related to conspiracy or racketeering, and there have been hints that Trump himself could be among the possible defendants. Other high-profile witnesses included Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.