Trump lawyers meeting with prosecutors as potential new federal indictment looms, AP source says

WASHINGTON — Attorneys for Donald Trump are meeting with special counsel Jack Smith's team, as prosecutors appear poised to indict the former president on charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, multiple outlets reported Thursday.  

The meeting included Trump lawyer John Lauro, said an Associated Press source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private gathering.

Smith's office has for months been charged with investigating efforts by Trump and his campaign team to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. 

Analysts have said some potential charges could be related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a Trump-supporting mob attacked the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot, forcing lawmakers to flee and bunker down for hours. 

Trump received a target letter earlier this month informing him he was the target of the special counsel's investigation and that a grand jury was being convened to hear evidence; a grand jury decides whether there is enough evidence to charge somebody with a crime, and convening one is often a major escalation in a federal prosecution.

Trump disclosed the existence of the target letter in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying he received it on July 16, and said at the time that he anticipates being indicted. 

Such a letter often precedes an indictment and is used to advise individuals under investigation that prosecutors have gathered evidence linking them to a crime. Trump received one last month soon before being charged in a separate investigation into the illegal retention of classified documents.

It's unclear if Smith's team of prosecutors plans to bring charges against others in Trump's orbit as well, but such charges are likely if Trump is indicted, given the widespread efforts by allies of Trump, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, to argue that the election was fraudulent. 

No evidence of widespread voter fraud, which Trump claims caused his loss, was found despite numerous audits, including some championed by GOP-led state legislatures. 

New federal charges, on top of existing state and federal counts in New York and Florida and a separate election-interference investigation nearing conclusion in Georgia, would add to the list of legal problems for Trump as he pursues the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Smith has already secured one indictment against Trump, filing more than 30 charges last month accusing him of taking some of the government's most classified information with him when he left the White House and hiding it from the government when officials tried to secure the documents' return. 

He also faces charges in New York related to alleged hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.