January 18, 2023 Latest on probe into Trump and 2020 election aftermath

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday in a social media post he’s been informed by special counsel Jack Smith that he is a target of the criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a sign he may soon be charged by the special counsel.

Trump’s attorneys, including Todd Blanche, received the target letter from Smith’s team Sunday informing them that their client could face charges in the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, two sources familiar with what happened tell CNN.

A target letter from federal prosecutors to Trump makes clear that prosecutors are focused on the former president’s actions in the investigation into overturning the 2020 election —and not just on those around him who tried to stop his election loss.

Smith declined to comment Tuesday when asked by CNN about the target letter and whether his office is preparing to indict the former president.

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GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham argued that there is “no way in hell,” former President Donald Trump would get a fair trial in Washington, DC. if he is indicted in the federal probe into January 6, 2021. 

He also argued that the timeline for any indictment would place a trial too close to the 2024 election cycle to not be political.

“We’re just a little over a year away, the first primary is in January. I think they're gonna have a hard time pushing this case before the political season really starts. So I worry about the disruption to the election itself,” said Graham. 

He added, “He's the leading candidate on the Republican side. Another indictment this close to the election season is going to be problematic for the country.”

Graham, a close ally of Trump — who was highly critical of him immediately after the insurrection — insisted that the former president cannot be legally to blame for the actions of his supporters. 

“It's a bad day for the country. I said that and, you know, I don't think he did anything criminal,” said Graham, though he noted, “I think he should have gotten involved earlier to stand people down.”

Dissent from the vast field of 2024 GOP presidential candidates has already begun to rise since former President Donald Trump revealed that he is a target of the criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he hopes that Trump isn’t indicted a third time and that the former president’s actions on January 6 are judged by the American people. 

“I hope it doesn’t come to that. I’m not convinced that the president acting on bad advice of a group of crank lawyers that came into the White House in the days before January 6 is actually criminal,” Pence told NewsNation. Pence added that his hope is the “judgment about the president’s actions on January 6 would be left to the American people.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson: "I have said from the beginning that Donald Trump's actions on January 6 should disqualify him from ever being President again. As a former federal prosecutor, I understand the severity of Grand Jury investigations and what it means to be targeted by such an investigation. Donald Trump has confirmed that he is a target of this investigation and will likely be indicted once again. While Donald Trump would like the American people to believe that he is the victim in this situation, the truth is that the real victims of January 6th were our democracy, our rule of law, and those Capitol Police officers who worked valiantly to protect our Capitol. Anyone who truly loves this country and is willing to put the country over themselves would suspend their campaign for President of the United States immediately. It is disappointing that Donald Trump refuses to do so."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he hopes Trump "doesn't get charged. I don't think it'll be good for the country. But at the same time, I've gotta focus on looking forward, and that's what we're gonna do."

“I think what we've seen in this country is an attempt to criminalize politics and to try to criminalize differences,” DeSantis told CNN's Jake Tapper. “I don't know what it was all about that but I do know that we look at institutions unfortunately, like our own FBI and Department of Justice, and we've seen the politicization of those institutions.”

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley: “I mean, the rest of this primary election is going to be in reference to Trump, it’s gonna be about lawsuits, it’s gonna be about legal fees, it’s gonna be about judges, and it is just going to continue to be a further and further distraction.”

She told Fox News, “And that's why I am running, it's because we need a new generational leader. We can't keep dealing with this drama or dealing with the negativity. we can't keep dealing with all of this.”  

Chris Christie: "As a former prosecutor, I want to see any potential indictment before I talk about the case against Donald Trump. That said, let me be clear: his conduct on January 6th proves he doesn’t care about our country & our Constitution." Christie said on Twitter.

Will Hurd: "Jan. 6 was a dark day for democracy. Trump's inaction then, and now being a target in the investigation, proves he's not fit for office. Our country deserves leaders who will put the Constitution and the American people above all else." Hurd said on Twitter. 

Vivek Ramaswamy: "This is different from any of the other prior indictments against Trump and people are missing the importance of this indictment in particular. Not only is this a federal indictment like the last one in the documents case? But more importantly, this one under section three of the 14th amendment could disqualify President Trump from either running for US president or potentially even being removed as US president if he is elected, I think this sets a dangerous precedent in our country." Ramaswamy said in a video posted on Twitter. 

 CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi, Steve Contorno and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team aggressively pushed back when Donald Trump’s attorneys cast the Mar-a-Lago criminal documents case in political terms.

Prosecutor David Harbach pointed to Smith’s appointment and said that removed the potential for "political influence." 

"There has been none," Harbach said. He noted that the current and former prosecutors on Smith's team all served in career roles, and that none of them are political appointees.

Harbach was responding to a comment made by Trump attorney Christopher Kise, who argued that the 2024 election and the publicity it would bring to the case would make it impossible to have a fair trial before the election.

Kise said that in the public’s view of this case, the top GOP contender in the 2024 presidential race is “squaring off” with the administration of his chief political rival. 

"The government says the claim is flat-out false," Harbach responded.

"They are all here because a grand jury in this district returned an indictment of these defendants and they deserve a trial," he said.

While Judge Aileen Cannon appeared receptive to the defendants’ claims that the case may require an extensive pre-trial period, she did not seem persuaded by the argument that Trump's status as a candidate meant the trial would have to wait until after the election.

Referring to the intense publicity the case would attract, Cannon asked Kise: "Won't that just continue" after the election? 

She told Kise to focus his arguments on other rationales for why the trial should not be expedited, such as the legal issues the case might prompt or the complexities of handling the classified info.  

Donald Trump’s lawyers declined to answer questions about the target letter from special counsel Jack Smith and about Tuesday’s hearing in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case while leaving a courtroom in Florida.

The hearing in federal court in Fort Pierce lasted less than two hours. 

Neither Trump nor special counsel Jack Smith attended the hearing, but the former president's aide and co-defendant Walt Nauta was there.

Nauta appeared attentive and spoke only once in open court, saying, “Good afternoon your honor” at the start of the hearing. Nauta’s attorneys also declined to comment as they were leaving the courthouse. 

Trump has been charged with wrongfully retaining national defense documents and attempting to obstruct the Justice Department. Nauta is accused of being captured on tape moving boxes of documents at Trump’s direction to evade law enforcement.

Both Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune, in his first reaction to news of Donald Trump being a target in the January 6 criminal probe, told CNN that the former president's legal woes underscore the risk facing Republicans if they nominate him as their presidential candidate in 2024. 

"It's part of the distractions that are always going to be surrounding the former president," said Thune, who has backed Sen. Tim Scott in his presidential bid. "And people have to make their own judgments about that whether or not they want to — whether or not they want to have that going forward." 

Asked if he believed Trump was responsible for the violence on January 6, 2021, Thune said: "There'll be a lot of analysis of that that goes on for many, many years in the future. That was a bad day for everyone in this country. And we should really understand it in a way that it doesn’t happen again."

And as to whether he believes Trump broke the law on January 6, 2021, Thune said:

Sixteen fake electors who signed certificates falsely claiming President Donald Trump won Michigan in the 2020 election have been charged with crimes, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday.

The charged individuals are Kathy Berden, a Republican National Committeewoman from Michigan; William (Hank) Choate; Amy Facchinello; Clifford Frost; Stanley Grot; John Haggard; Mary-Ann Henry; Timothy King; Michele Lundgren, Meshawn Maddock, the former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party; James Renner; Mayra Rodriguez; Rose Rook; Marian Sheridan; Ken Thompson; and Kent Vanderwood.

All 16 individuals were charged with multiple felonies “for their role in the alleged false electors scheme following the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” Nessel’s office announced. The counts include one count of conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing and one count of uttering and publishing – all of which carry a maximum of 14 years in prison – as well as one count of conspiracy to commit election law forgery and two counts of election law forgery, which carry a maximum of five years in prison.

Michigan was one of the seven battleground states where the Trump campaign put forward slates of “fake electors” as part of their plan to undermine the Electoral College process, and potentially disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didn't respond to CNN's questions about former President Donald Trump being informed that he was the target of a federal investigation into the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

McConnell also did not address if he had concerns about a top candidate for the GOP being the target of such an investigation. 

He hasn't spoken about the Trump indictments when pushed at his weekly stakeout in the past. 

McConnell also didn't address the issue on the Senate floor this afternoon. 

Judge Aileen Cannon signaled she is likely to push back the start of a trial in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case beyond the mid-December date proposed by federal prosecutors – but appeared deeply skeptical of arguments from former President Donald Trump’s lawyers that he couldn’t get a fair trial while running for president.

During a hearing in federal court on Tuesday in Fort Pierce, Florida, Cannon told the prosecutors that their timeline was “compressed” and said that cases like this take more time.

Cannon did not decide on a trial date but said she plans to “promptly” issue an order on the matter.

The judge also pressed the Trump legal team to commit to a timeline for at least some of the steps in the pre-trial process. The defense attorneys told Cannon that they believed they would be able to review enough discovery by November to be able to suggest a potential trial date.