(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump has been informed he is a target in the investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents, sources confirmed to NewsNation.
It’s a sign that the Justice Department may be moving closer to indicting the former president, who has been under investigation since the FBI recovered classified documents at his Palm Beach, Florida, home last fall.
Trump denied this in a Truth Social post, and in a fundraising email hours after initial reports of the notification surfaced.
“No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong,” Trump said earlier Wednesday on Truth Social.
Trump’s legal team received the letter from prosecutors confirming he’s a target Wednesday, sources said. It indicates Special Counsel Jack Smith is looking directly at Trump’s actions, as opposed to just those of the people around Trump.
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the probe that is trying to determine which laws, if any, Trump or others broke by keeping classified documents after he left the White House.
Trump’s legal team recently met with the Justice Department to discuss the investigation. They argued in a letter requesting the meeting that the former president is being treated unfairly.
While a notification from the Justice Department is a strong signal that an indictment could follow, the target could ultimately end up not being charged.
The Justice Department manual encourages prosecutors to provide such notifications before seeking an indictment in order to give the individual an opportunity to testify before the grand jury.
Trump has offered various defenses, including that he had the right to take the documents and that he could unilaterally declassify them without going through any formal process.
The notification is one of many developments in a spate of recent activity that has spurred chatter and predictions from legal experts that Smith could be preparing to indict Trump.
“I suspect it’s near,” former Attorney General Bill Barr said Tuesday on “CBS Mornings.” “I’ve said for a while that I think this is the most dangerous legal risk facing the former president. And if I had to bet, I would bet that it’s near.”
Likewise, attorney Alan Dershowitz, who represented Trump at his impeachment trial, expects charges to come.
“The odds are he will be indicted,” Dershowitz said Wednesday on “CUOMO.” “I think he will be indicted for obstruction of the investigation of the classified material possession.”
The Hill contributed to this report.
