President Trump’s disclosure that he received a “target letter” from Special Counsel Jack Smith with respect to the January 6 investigation signals that a second federal indictment looms for the 45th president and frontrunner for the presidential nomination of the Republican Party.  

Mr. Trump took to Truth Social to report that  “Deranged Jack Smith” sent a letter “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.” He notes that he received the letter on Sunday evening.

Mr. Trump also observed that a “probable fourth” indictment is coming from Fulton County, whose district attorney, Fani Willis, is probing efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the Peach Tree State. Mr. Smith, who is conducting his own federal investigation, now appears set to hand up charges. 

The former president writes that “nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before,” and a case against Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn President Biden’s victory would indeed be a novel one. The Department of Justice has, though, brought charges against more than 1,000 defendants with respect to the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

The Justice Department has secured multiple convictions for seditious conspiracy — called “treason’s sibling” by one law professor, Laurence Tribe — a Civil War-era charge that could, in turn, be used against Mr. Trump. No defendant has yet been charged with insurrection, making such an accusation against Mr. Trump a prosecutorial gamble.

Mr. Smith could also focus on Mr. Trump’s efforts to elevate alternative slates of electors loyal to him in seven states won by Mr. Biden, a scheme the January 6 committee alleged was hatched in the Oval Office by one of his attorneys, John Eastman. That is one focus of Ms. Willis’s investigation, as well.  

On Truth Social, Mr. Trump maintains that “THIS WITCH HUNT IS ALL ABOUT ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”