The 'clearest' sign yet that Trump is about to be prosecuted again?

Former US President Donald Trump

US media on June 7 quoted sources revealing that federal prosecutors have informed former US President Donald Trump's legal team that he is the subject of an investigation into whether he committed wrongdoing in handling classified documents.

So far, Mr. Trump has only been criminally prosecuted in a state-level investigation in New York, related to allegations of paying hush money to a porn actress, although the former president is facing a series of legal challenges, including two federal investigations.

According to The New York Times , the notice sent by special prosecutor Jack Smith's office to Mr. Trump's team is the clearest signal yet that the former president is likely to face prosecution in the investigation into how he handled classified documents.

Notifying a person that they are a target of an investigation is a standard way of indicating that they are the direct focus of a criminal investigation and usually occurs before charges are filed. This notification often opens the way for defense attorneys to request a meeting with the prosecutor to present their side of the story.

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Reuters, citing a source, said Trump's team received the notice on June 5, and the notice does not necessarily mean Trump will be prosecuted. But the New York Times reported that the notice suggests that prosecutors working for Smith have likely completed much of the federal investigation and are moving toward indictments.

In August 2022, FBI investigators seized about 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, 100 of which were marked secret, although one of Trump’s lawyers previously said all the classified files had been returned to federal authorities.

In court filings last year, prosecutors said they were examining whether Mr. Trump violated laws governing the handling of U.S. national security documents and whether he obstructed government efforts to retrieve them.

On June 5, three of Mr. Trump’s lawyers — James Trusty, John Rowley, and Lindsey Halligan — met with Mr. Smith and others for nearly two hours at the Justice Department headquarters. According to The New York Times , people close to Mr. Trump said it was a last-ditch effort to prevent prosecution and warn federal prosecutors about what they believe was misconduct in Mr. Smith’s investigation.

On June 7, witnesses continued to appear before a federal grand jury in Miami, which is hearing evidence in the classified documents case. One of them was Taylor Budowich, a former spokesman for Mr. Trump.

As Mr. Budowich finished testifying, John Solomon, a journalist and one of Mr. Trump’s representatives at the National Archives, published an article claiming that prosecutors were “on the verge” of indicting Mr. Trump.

The New York Times contacted Mr. Trump directly to ask if he had actually been notified that he was being prosecuted, and the former president said it was “not true.” But when asked if he had been informed that he was the target of a federal investigation, Mr. Trump did not answer directly, saying “you have to understand” that he had not communicated directly with prosecutors.

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Shortly afterward, Mr. Trump denied Mr. Solomon's claims on his social media platform. "No one told me I was being prosecuted and I shouldn't be prosecuted because I did nothing wrong, but for years I assumed I was a target of weaponized places like the Justice Department and FBI," he wrote on Truth Social.

Mr Trump has announced his campaign to return to the White House after 2024 and he is currently the leading candidate in the increasingly crowded Republican field, according to opinion polls. Most recently, Mr. Mike Pence, who was vice president in the Trump administration, officially joined the race.

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