Former US President Donald Trump has said he expects to be arrested on federal charges in relation to the deadly Capitol riot which took place on January 6, 2021, when his supporters tried to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump said he received a letter from the US Justice Department telling him that he is the target of the long-running criminal investigation.
Yesterday, Tuesday, July 17, he wrote on social media that Special Counsel Jack Smith – the prosecutor leading the federal investigation – had informed him on Sunday, July 16.
The businessman has said he expects to be indicted in the case. In a long rambling post on social media, he called Mr Smith ‘deranged’ and said Attorney General Merrick Garland is ‘unethical’.
He wrote: ‘Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before or even close.’
The frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination decried what he called a ‘WITCH HUNT’ and ‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’ on his Truth Social platform.
He wrote: ‘WOW On Sunday night, while I was with my family, having just arrived from the Turning Point event in Florida, where I won the Straw Poll against all other Republican candidates with 85.7%, with all polls showing me leading in the Republican Primary by very substantial numbers, almost everyone predicting that I will be the Republican Nominee for President, and as I am leading Democrat Joe Biden in the polls by a lot, HORRIFYING NEWS for our Country was given to me by my attorneys.
‘Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.’
In his post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that ‘they have now effectively indicted me three times… with a probably fourth coming from Atlanta’.
He went on to say the ‘witch hunt’ is ‘a complete and total (political) weaponisation of law enforcement!’
Trump, 77, has been charged twice this year with other crimes. The first in March in New York City is for falsifying business records.
It was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over a 2016 hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Last month, Trump was charged with crimes related to the mishandling of classified documents.
