Legal expert Jonathan Turley predicted Tuesday that another indictment against former President Donald Trump may backfire unless investigators possess air-tight evidence of a crime.
What is the background?
On Tuesday, Trump revealed that he received a "target letter" from special counsel Jack Smith on Sunday indicating that he is a target in the Jan. 6 investigation.
"Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) 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," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
While the exact crimes for which Trump may be indicted are not clear, the notification suggests Trump will be criminally indicted for a third time.
What did Turley say?
Reacting to the development on Fox News, Turley said the case may be "constitutionally challenged" unless investigators have significant evidence that Trump committed a crime.
"If the case is built around Trump's speech on the ellipsis on Jan. 6, I don't believe that it could withstand judicial review," Turley said.
"The question is: Does Smith have something else? Something that's a direct link to a conspiracy or effort to cause violence? We haven't seen that," he explained. "I mean the Jan. 6 committee in Congress came up with nothing as a direct nexus to that type of evidence."
After news of the target letter broke, Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson called on Trump to suspend his 2024 campaign. But according to Turley, there is neither legal nor political justification for such action.
In fact, Turley predicted that in the absence of hard and convincing evidence, another indictment could backfire and actually help Trump.
"Each of these indictments seems to give him a boost in the polls. I mean, this is fulfilling his narrative that there's a weaponization of the criminal justice system," he said.
"That's why this indictment, if there is coming, could be so important," he continued. "With Mar-a-Lago, those were classic types of charges, a classic-built case. This one they have to really stick the landing so that no one will question it. ... That's gonna require some very direct and strong evidence. We haven't seen that.
"So if Smith doesn't have that type of evidence and he’s moving forward largely on the speech, then I think he will fulfill the narrative of Donald Trump," Turley said.
Trump's target letter from DOJ may indicate a coming indictment: Turley
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