Former U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Trump’s one-time White House lawyer told CNN he thinks the former president could be indicted in Jack Smith’s Capitol riot investigation as soon as Thursday.
Ty Cobb also said he thinks Trump could be charged with conspiracy, obstruction, and aiding insurrectionists.
Smith’s office informed Trump that he was a target in the investigation over the weekend.
Former President Donald Trump’s one-time White House counsel said Tuesday that if Trump is indicted in the Justice Department’s Capitol riot probe, it’ll happen as soon as Thursday and no later than Monday.
Ty Cobb, who served as Trump’s White House special counsel in 2017 and 2018, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that he believes Trump will be charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the US. He added that he also thinks there’s a chance Trump could be charged with giving aid and comfort to insurrectionists.
“There are a variety of ways to charge this that all boil down to the same conduct,” Cobb told CNN Tuesday.
Specifically, he was referring to Trump’s efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject electors from battleground states that Joe Biden won in the 2020 election; efforts to stop some of those states from certifying Biden’s victory; and his potential interference with witnesses.
“There’s an outside chance that he could be charged with giving aid and comfort to the insurrectionists,” Cobb added, “as a result of his three hours of inaction” on the day of the Capitol riot, and his “intervening message calling Pence a coward.”
Cobb has long believed that special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Capitol riot is the most dangerous legal threat the former president faces.
“No matter what, the most serious case he faces is the January 6 investigation,” Cobb told Insider last August. “Not necessarily because of January 6 alone but coupled with the fake electors scheme and the interference alleged in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.”
“That’s the case that has him at the most risk and is more at the heart of what the Justice Department would take seriously,” he added.
Trump said on Truth Social Tuesday that Smith’s office sent him a letter over the weekend formally notifying him that he is a target for criminal prosecution in connection to the sprawling January 6 investigation. Target letters often — but not always — precede an indictment, in which prosecutors formally lay out the criminal charges they’re bringing against someone.
Trump’s announcement Tuesday was the biggest sign yet that he could be indicted for a third time. He was previously charged in New York in connection to a $130,000 payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, and he was federally indicted in Florida in relation to his handling of classified documents.
Insider reached out to a lawyer for Trump for comment.