Former President Donald Trump is hyping taking the witness stand in his own potential trial over his efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election as a federal grand jury is reportedly set to vote on charges as early as Thursday.
“We’ll have fun on the stand with all of these people that say the Presidential Election wasn’t Rigged and Stollen,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform Wednesday. “THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY!!!”
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Trump has continued to falsely claim he defeated Joe Biden in 2020 as he leads the pack for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Most of his rivals are saying he should get a pass for inciting the violent Capitol riot.
While the former president has received a target letter from special counsel Jack Smith, which legal experts suggest signals a looming indictment, it is highly unlikely he would take to the stand in his own criminal trial. His penchant for falsehoods and hyperbole, and his rich record of outrageous public statements, would make him a ripe target for an experienced prosecutor’s cross-examination.
Trump’s legal and political teams are bracing for a grand jury vote on charges as early as Thursday, NBC News reported, citing three sources.
Smith’s probe has been wide-ranging, targeting the fake elector scheme and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, among other things, as investigators continue questioning witnesses.
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Bernard Kerik, who worked with Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to investigate unfounded claims of voter fraud after the 2020 contest, turned over thousands of documents to Smith, his lawyer confirmed this week.
“I have shared all of these documents, approximately 600 MB, mostly PDFs, with the Special Counsel and look forward to sitting down with them in about 2 weeks to discuss,” Tim Parlatore, Kerik’s lawyer, said in a statement Monday.
Giuliani has also spoken to prosecutors, as has Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who declined to comment when questioned by a reporter about the probe.
Chris Krebs, a former government cybersecurity official in charge of voting system security who was fired by Trump after casting doubt on his election lies, confirmed this week that he spoke to Smith earlier this year.
Smith has been zeroing in on a Feb. 14, 2020, White House meeting where Trump was briefed by various agency officials about the security of the U.S. election, sources told NBC News and CNN.
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The target letter Smith sent Trump on July 16 referenced three federal statutes that could constitute the basis for his prosecution: conspiracy to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under color of law, and tampering with victims, witnesses or informants.
Trump has already been indicted twice — first in New York over his role in a hush money payment scheme involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels, followed by a federal indictment over his mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
The former president could face additional charges in a special grand jury investigation in Georgia over efforts to subvert Biden’s 2020 win in the state.
