Donald Trump

Special counsel's target letter to Trump in 2020 election probe cites three federal statutes

Trump publicly disclosed on Tuesday that he had received the letter on Sunday night and that it gave him four days to decide whether to testify before the grand jury

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The letter that former President Donald Trump received from special counsel Jack Smith informing him that he is a target of the federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election mentions three federal statutes related to the deprivation of rights, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and tampering with a witness.

Those three federal statutes were included in the letter Trump said he received on Sunday night, according to two attorneys with direct knowledge of the document. The context surrounding the statutes cited in the target letter is unclear, and their inclusion in the letter doesn't necessarily mean Trump will be charged with related counts or that an indictment would be limited to only those three statutes.

The details of the letter were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Trump publicly disclosed on Tuesday that he had received the letter on Sunday night and that it gave him four days to decide whether to testify before the grand jury investigating the case. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed that Trump had received a target letter from Smith, but it was not immediately clear on Tuesday what the charges would be or whether anyone else received a target letter. People who have been informed that they are targets of criminal probes are often, but not always, indicted.

Read more at NBCNews.com.

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