Lawyers for Donald Trump met on Thursday with the special counsel Jack Smith and members of his team, as a potential indictment loomed regarding Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
In a social media post the former US president called the meeting “productive” but lashed out at media coverage.
Multiple outlets reported that the Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche, meeting prosecutors including Smith, attempted to make a case for why the former president should not be indicted.
The Guardian has reported that Smith’s team has assembled evidence to charge Trump with three crimes.
They are: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiring to “intimidate a person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the constitution or laws of the United States” – a rarely used civil rights charge.
On Thursday, amid feverish speculation, NBC said Trump’s lawyers had been told to expect an indictment, though CNN said Trump’s lawyers were not given any indication of when an indictment might land.
However, a Trump spokesperson, Steven Cheung, said the NBC report was “incorrect”.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said: “My attorneys had a productive meeting with the [Department of Justice] this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an indictment of me would only further destroy our country.
“No indication of notice was given during the meeting – do not trust the fake news on anything!”
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment on the reported meeting between the special counsel’s team and lawyers for Trump.
Earlier this month, Trump was informed by Smith’s office that he was a target of the justice department investigation, suggesting an indictment could be imminent.
Trump publicised the letter himself, and has since poured invective towards Smith, the special counsel appointed by the US attorney general, Merrick Garland. Denying all accusations of wrongdoing, Trump claims political persecution.
But in an unprecedented situation for a former US president, he already faces 71 criminal indictments.
Smith brought 37 of them over Trump’s mishandling of classified information after leaving office. Trial has been set for May next year.
The other 34 criminal charges against Trump were brought by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, over Trump’s hush-money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. Trial in that case is set for March.
Despite such dramatic legal jeopardy – also including a state investigation of election subversion attempts in Georgia, a $5m fine after being held liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll, and multiple investigations of his business affairs – Trump holds commanding leads in polling regarding the contest for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
In 2020, he was conclusively beaten by Joe Biden. Refusing to accept his defeat, he pursued the lie of extensive electoral fraud through attempts to overturn results in key states, notably Georgia, and up to 6 January 2021, the day results were certified by Congress, when Trump incited supporters to attack the US Capitol itself.
Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides.
Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection, as Democrats attempted to bar him from running for office again, but acquitted when enough Republican senators stayed loyal. More than a thousand Trump supporters have been arrested over the attack and hundreds convicted, some with seditious conspiracy.
Associates of Trump, prominently including the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who acted as Trump’s personal attorney, are also in legal jeopardy over the election subversion attempt.
Associated Press contributed to this report
