Alleged Trump target letter suggests Jan. 6 indictment may be coming soon

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said today that he hasn't met with Smith’s team after investigators from Smith’s office interviewed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last month in Atlanta.

“I have not talked to anybody from the special counsel’s office, no,” Kemp, a Republican, told NBC News.

Asked about the Fulton County probe into whether Trump and his allies interfered in the 2020 presidential election, Kemp said: “I think people are very frustrated that it’s taking so long. It gives the appearance that it’s political, but we’ll see what finally comes out with, I mean, it’s probably going to be another couple of weeks, I guess.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis suggested in letters to local officials that she could seek indictments in the first half of next month.

Asked whether Georgia is prepared for whatever happens in that probe, Kemp said, “Oh, yeah, we’re not going to have anybody getting out of hand in the state of Georgia, I can tell you that.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced today that she has filed charges against 16 people who signed paperwork falsely claiming Trump had won the 2020 election as part of a scheme to overturn the results.

Presidents are technically voted in by slates of electors from each state who cast their votes for the candidates selected by their states’ popular vote. In December 2020, as Trump tried to overturn the results of the election, his allies readied alternative slates of electors in several states.

They appear to be the first charges filed against fake electors.

The 16 people being charged in Michigan met in the basement of the state’s Republican Party headquarters and signed multiple certificates claiming they were “the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America for the state of Michigan,” Nessel said in recorded remarks.

Read the full story here.

Asked about Trump’s growing legal difficulties, Dan Coats, a director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, said he hopes another indictment will prompt voters to consider new Republican leaders.

“That’s a hornets' nest of issues that, well, both presidents — but particularly Trump — need to go through,” he told NBC News.

“I hope the American people will look at that as a reason to give thought to the need for a new generation” of national leaders, said Coats, a former Republican senator from Indiana.

Biden "respects the Department of Justice, their independence," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in today's briefing when asked about Trump's legal development.

She said she did not want to discuss hypotheticals or comment further.

John Eastman, the Trump-allied lawyer who created a memo arguing that, as vice president, Mike Pence could overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, has not received a target letter from the special counsel.

His attorney, Charles Burnham, said in a statement: "Our client has received no target letter, and we don’t expect one since raising concerns about illegality in the conduct of an election is not now and has never been sanctionable."

In his post on Truth Social, Trump said he received a “target letter” Sunday from Smith, or an official notice that he is the subject of a federal investigation. 

Unlike an indictment, target letters do not officially indicate that recipients will face criminal charges, only that they are the subjects of criminal investigations, according to the Justice Department’s Justice Manual.

The manual notes that people become “targets” if prosecutors or grand juries generally conclude that the subjects of investigations are likely to face criminal charges and if they possess “substantial evidence” linking them to “the commission of a crime.”

The letters usually invite a recipient to voluntarily appear before a grand jury, typically offering a "reasonable" window of time to testify ahead of prosecutors' seeking an indictment, according to the manual. The Justice Department's manual also includes a copy of a sample target letter:

This letter is supplied to a witness scheduled to appear before the federal Grand Jury in order to provide helpful background information about the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury consists of from sixteen to twenty-three persons from the District of ___. It is their responsibility to inquire into federal crimes which may have been committed in this District.

As a Grand Jury witness you will be asked to testify and answer questions, and to produce records and documents. Only the members of the Grand Jury, attorneys for the United States and a stenographer are permitted in the Grand Jury room while you testify.

We advise you that the Grand Jury is conducting an investigation of possible violations of federal criminal laws involving, but not necessarily limited to *. You are advised that the destruction or alteration of any document required to be produced before the grand jury constitutes serious violation of federal law, including but not limited to Obstruction of Justice.

You are advised that you are a target of the Grand Jury's investigation. You may refuse to answer any question if a truthful answer to the question would tend to incriminate you. Anything that you do or say may be used against you in a subsequent legal proceeding. If you have retained counsel, who represents you personally, the Grand Jury will permit you a reasonable opportunity to step outside the Grand Jury room and confer with counsel if you desire.

CRM 1-499, Criminal resource manual, Justice manual

Former Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, criticized Trump's actions leading up to Jan. 6, saying in a statement that the former president "was willing to let people die for his lies about a stolen election."

"Trump’s inaction then and now being a target in the investigation proves he’s not fit for office," Hurd added.

Hurd, a moderate Republican and Trump critic who announced his campaign for president last month, has said he will not support the former president if he becomes the 2024 Republican nominee.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., a former federal prosecutor, called Smith's investigation "incredibly exhaustive" and said he expects the special counsel to indict the former president soon.

"The special counsel has clearly done an incredibly exhaustive investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and this appears to be the culmination of it, and I expect Donald Trump to be indicted in the near future," Goldman said.

Trump took off on his plane from Newark Liberty International Airport at around 1:30 p.m. ET en route to Iowa, where he's scheduled to participate in a town hall with Fox News' Sean Hannity.

The town hall is set to air at 9 ET tonight.