Jack Smith probe appears to be zeroing in on Trump's January 6 actions: legal expert

For weeks it’s been said by political analysts that Donald Trump might evade charges related to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt, but a prominent legal expert on Wednesday cast doubt on that assumption.

Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman said that recent developments now appear to show that it is "more likely" that the former president’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol will lead special counsel Jack Smith to pursue an indictment. Litman cited new reporting on former Trump officials Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon that suggests Smith is now zeroing in on Jan. 6.

Bannon, who served as a special assistant to Trump, was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Washington D.C. hearing evidence in the Jan. 6 probe, NBC News reported Wednesday.

That follows multiple reports Tuesday that Meadows, who served as Trump’s chief of staff in the last year of his presidency, testified in connection to one or both of Smith’s investigations.

The New York Times reports that Meadows is viewed as a potentially important witness in both investigations.

Jonathan Swan, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman write for The Times that “Mr. Meadows was around for pivotal moments leading up to and after the 2020 election, as Mr. Trump plotted to try to stay in office and thwart Joseph R. Biden Jr. from being sworn in to succeed him. Some of them were described in hundreds of text messages that Mr. Meadows turned over to the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol before he decided to stop cooperating. Those texts served as a road map for House investigators.”

Litman views these reports as evidence that Smith is prioritizing the Jan. 6 probe.

“Between Bannon and Meadows, Smith is really going to the dead center of the January 6 offenses,” Litman tweeted Wednesday.

“Makes charges there seem both more likely and less remote in time.(not to say "imminent" by any means; in fact, we probably should stop using that word altogether!)," he added.