Former President Donald Trump has already received a target letter from special counsel Jack Smith, triggering a wave of speculation over whether or not he will be indicted in the January 6 investigation.
But there is no need to speculate, argued correspondent Jamie Gangel on CNN Thursday. She argued the letter means an indictment of the former president is all but guaranteed.
Her analysis came amid a discussion of former Vice President Mike Pence being interviewed as part of the investigation, and what it signifies as Pence is caught between running his own campaign for president in which he fears alienating voters by criticizing Trump, and cooperating with an investigation that could bring about Trump's prosecution.
"We know that Vice President Mike Pence testified for more than five hours in this investigation, the January 6th investigation," said anchor Jake Tapper. "He has been walking a line between him and Trump, but touting his successes as vice president. Saying this should be left up to the voters not the prosecutors. If Trump is indicted, how might that impact Pence's campaign?"
"It's not clear it's going to make a difference," said Gangel. "His presidential campaign is not doing well. He's not raising a lot of money. Thus far, he has not made the debate stage when many of the other candidates — he has incredible name recognition in comparison to the others. He hasn't made the debate stage. So I don't know that it makes any difference."
"To go back ... for a second, I was told by very senior former Justice Department officials that this target letter really — it's going to happen," said Gangel. "There is going to be an indictment of Donald Trump. And that they feel they have a very strong case."
If that hadn't been the case, Gangel added, "[Attorney General] Merrick Garland would not have signed off on that target letter."
