Federal prosecutors have notified the legal team for former President Donald J. Trump that he was the target of their investigation into his handling of classified documents after he left office, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The notification to Trump's team by prosecutors from the office of special counsel Jack Smith is the clearest signal yet that the former president is likely to face charges in the investigation.
It remains unclear when Mr. Trump was notified that he was the target of a special counsel investigation, but the notification indicated that prosecutors working for Mr. Smith has largely concluded their investigation and is moving to press charges.
In court papers last year, prosecutors indicated they were investigating whether Trump had violated laws governing the handling of national security documents and whether he had obstructed government efforts to retrieve them.
Trump was found to be in possession of more than 300 marked classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and Florida residence, including some found during a search there by FBI agents two months after the former president's lawyers said an diligent search had turned up no more.
Notifying a potential defendant that he or she is the target is a formal way of indicating that the person is the immediate focus of a criminal investigation and often precedes the filing of charges. The notification usually opens the door for defense attorneys requesting a meeting with prosecutors to tell their side of the story.
On Monday, Mr.'s three lawyers. Trump – James Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsey Halligan – met for nearly two hours with Mr. Smith and others at the Department of Justice in what people close to Mr. Trump as a last ditch effort to prevent indictment and notify prosecutors of what they believe to be errors in Mr. Smith.
On Wednesday, witnesses continued to appear before a federal grand jury in Miami hearing evidence in the documents case – among them Taylor Budowich, one of Trump's former spokesmen.
Helper and adviser Mr. Trump spent the day in a tense state. when Mr. Budowich finished his appearance on the jury, John Solomon, a conservative journalist who served as one of Mr. Trump for the National Archives, published an article claiming that prosecutors were moving to indict Mr. Trump “soon”.
The New York Times contacted Trump directly to ask if he had in fact been told he would be indicted, and he said that was “not true”.
But when asked whether he had been told he was the target of a federal investigation, Trump did not answer directly, saying “you have to understand” that he was not in direct contact with prosecutors. He later repeated that “it's not true” that he was told he would be charged.
Moments later, Mr Trump, who was at his club in Bedminster, NJ, posted a message denying Mr Solomon's claims on his social media platforms.
“Nobody told me I was indicted,” Trump wrote, “and I shouldn't have because I did NOTHING wrong, but I have assumed for years that I was a WEAPOND DOJ & FBI Target.”
Much of the investigation of the documents has been conducted by a sitting grand jury in Washington, which has heard from many witnesses over the past few months, including several of Mr. Trump, several low-level workers at Mar-a-Lago and more than 20 members of his Secret Service security detail.
Only a handful of witnesses – including several Mar-a-Lago employees – have so far appeared before a grand jury in Miami, which appears to have started hearing evidence last month, according to people familiar with how it works. It's still unclear how many more witnesses are scheduled to testify before the Miami grand jury.
Recently, there have been indications that a grand jury in Washington has expired or stopped hearing testimony, according to several people familiar with how it works. Some of those people said the last witness to appear for questioning in Washington did so in early or mid-May.
If prosecutors ultimately sue Trump – an outcome he and some of his advisers say is likely – it is still an open question whether Mr. Smith will file charges in Washington, Miami or both cities.
The special counsel's office is also conducting a separate investigation into Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The status of that investigation appears to lag somewhat behind that of the classified documents case.
Trump has already been indicted in New York by local prosecutors in a hush-hush case, and is under the tutelage of prosecutors in Georgia for his efforts to undo his election defeat in the state in 2020.
Federal prosecutors appear to be still gathering evidence in their investigation of the documents on Wednesday. Budowich appeared at the Miami courthouse around 9 a.m. for an hour or two of questions before the grand jury.
One thing prosecutors wanted to ask was a statement that Trump had his aide's draft shortly after news broke that National Archives officials had recovered 15 boxes of materials from him in January 2022. Budowich is Trump's spokesman in the office. time.
The statement Trump originally intended to send, according to two people briefed on the matter, said he had returned all presidential materials in his possession. A draft has been written, according to people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors have the draft and have asked witnesses about an email aide sent about it, according to people who were briefed on the matter.
The contention in the draft statement that Mr Trump had returned all government records in his possession was found to be false. After discovering that 15 boxes contained highly sensitive documents, prosecutors issued a subpoena demanding the return of classified documents still in Trump's possession. Trump's attorneys later turned in more, but an FBI search later turned up more.
The statement Mr Trump actually sent after the return of the 15 boxes in early 2022 did not imply that he had returned all government materials in his possession.
After his appearance on the jury ended, Budowich posted a message on Twitter saying he had answered “every question honestly”. He described the investigation as “a bogus and deeply troubling attempt to use government power to ‘get' Trump.”
His attorney, Stanley Woodward Jr., declined to comment.
While many of the key events in the document investigation took place in Florida — perhaps most notably the Mar-a-Lago shakedown last summer — cases were opened by national security prosecutors working in the Justice Department in Washington. Legal experts have debated which location will give prosecutors the best place to defend criminal charges.