Special counsel Jack Smith's target letter to former President Donald Trump indicated that he may be charged with violating a civil rights statute from the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, three sources told The New York Times.
The letter mentioned three criminal statutes in the grand jury investigation regarding Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, two people familiar with the matter told The Times. Two of these statutes included conspiracy to defraud the government and obstruction of an official proceeding. But a third "surprise" statute cited in the letter included Section 241 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which makes it a crime to "conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person" in the "free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States."
