A prominent legal expert said Monday that a second federal indictment against Donald Trump is all but a done deal.
Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general, said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut with Joy Reid” that “the table is set" for the indictment.
Litman was responding to the question about what to look for "If we assume an indictment is coming, whether it's imminent?"
Special counsel Jack Smith sent Trump a target letter last week indicating the former president has an opportunity to speak before the grand jury before the indictment. The case is the second of two Smith has focused on, and surrounds the attempts to overthrow the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on Congress. Last month, Smith indicted Trump on allegations the former president mishandled sensitive documents when he refused to return boxes of material, including classified information, to the National Archives.
“There's one main signal, and that is, everything they're talking about in terms of witnesses they have to interview, they don't need the grand jury for, but it is customary," Litman explained. "And in this case, it will happen that Trump's lawyers will be afforded a final chance to come in and get make a last-minute plea, which will not succeed, but they have the opportunity,” Litman said.
Speaking to MSNBC last week, former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi explained that in his estimation, 90 percent of the cases in which a target tries to defend themselves to the grand jury, they're indicted anyway.
“It's interesting, as you've just noted, that the, sort of, hysteria levels from Trump are hitting the stratosphere because this is one that he would know about," Litman also said. Earlier Monday, former senior prosecutor for Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, said that based on Trump's fundraising pitches, an indictment will likely happen this week.
Trump would know, "Are we going in? How is this going to work? What is the timing?" Litman asked. "So, to me, the table is set, (special counsel Jack) Smith is ready to go and that's what the target letter means save only you guys coming in or not? And by the way, you can't take two weeks, you know, come in of the pitch after that. Here's the indictment.”
Reid asked Litman, “How often does this pitch ever result in a non-indictment when you come in for that last meeting? How likely is that?”
“Well, you know, I was U.S. attorney and had those; occasionally, it would change the charges, perhaps. Not here," Litman said. "Only because it's been so carefully thought through. There's a draft indictment that you can be sure has gone up to the front office. ... I think we can be certain that no changes will occur as a result of the meeting, though.”
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