Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump announced that he received a letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith on Sunday stating that he is the target of a grand jury investigation related to January 6. The 2024 GOP hopeful said on his Truth Social platform that he expects to be arrested and indicted.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Donald Trump, Jr., host of Triggered on Rumble, to discuss the potential indictment and how he feels about watching his father go through this.
The Impending Indictment
Since being appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022, Smith has led a wide-ranging investigation into the 2024 GOP presidential hopeful. In June, a Miami grand jury convened by Smith indicted Trump on 37 felony counts over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Additionally, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged him in April with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his role in hush money payments.
Smith now appears to have his sights set on the former president’s connection to January 6 and 2020 election interference. People who are informed that they are targets of criminal probes are usually – though not always – indicted. It is widely believed that the charges will come soon in Smith’s effort to beat what is likely to be a fourth indictment at the hands of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Willis has been investigating President Trump’s alleged election interference in Georgia in the wake of the 2020 election. “There’s no reason to rush a letter like the one Jack Smith sent your dad on a Sunday night delivery unless you, as the prosecutor, are worried about getting your trial started, getting your trial date, making sure it happens before Fani Willis down in Georgia,” Megyn said. “You’ve got your queue in the election lineup before he runs for office. It really is a tell that he said in that letter on Sunday night.”
‘Another Day, Another Indictment’
In Trump’s view, the potential indictment is yet another sign that Democrats “have weaponized lawfare” and do not want to run against the former president. “I mean, they’re gonna try to do anything to stop Trump,” he said. “Honestly, at this point, I’m almost used to it. Another day, another indictment.”
He pointed to an “insane” two-tier system of justice. “You see that with the disparity of the treatment of the ‘BLM summer of Love rioters’ versus the January 6 folks,” he noted. Those on the wrong side of the aisle received “no due process,” he said, while “you could do murder, arson, rioting, looting, billions in damage, taking over cities, taking over courthouses… in the supposed name of social justice” and “it’s all well and good, it’s fine, it’s forgotten, nothing will happen.”
The Politicization of Justice
Megyn said the timing of the indictments cannot be ignored. “They’re rushing to get their indictments in so that they can make sure he faces the jury before the election,” she said. “It just tells you everything you need to know, and yet that doesn’t mean that they won’t prevail in front of these juries in particular.”
On that front, Megyn said there is a very real chance the former president could be convicted regardless of the merits of the cases. “The cases are scary because, while politically I think they’re helpful to your father’s… candidacy, legally, there’s risk,” she explained. “Given your dad’s age, it actually could be a life sentence if Jack Smith manages to get him in front of a [Washington] D.C. jury in particular.”
That reality is seemingly independent of the facts of the case. “It’s not that I like the legal case,” Megyn shared. “It’s just that if [Smith] can get past motion practice and get it in front of a D.C. jury – they went, what, 97 percent for Joe Biden in D.C. – he actually could be behind bars.”
Trump noted that doesn’t even take into account the other indictments his father is currently facing. “If we racked up the charges even prior… the other Jack Smith stuff, it’s 450 years,” he said. “I know my dad is a young and vibrant guy – no one’s gonna ever accuse him of being low energy – but not even Donald Trump can wait that one out.” In his view, “that’s their intention.”
Lawyering Up
There has been turnover in the former president’s legal team as these indictments have started to come though and that trend dates back to his presidency. Megyn attributed it to the blowback famed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz faced after he chose to defend the then-president during his impeachment trial. “There was a B.S. period where he struggled to get the top notch talent because of, I think, the Alan Dershowitz-effect,” she said. “There was this sort of cascade of lawyers who were like, ‘I don’t want to get the Alan Dershowitz treatment where I can’t get clients, or I get smeared, or I can’t get a seat on Martha’s Vineyard, or whatever it is.’”
While Trump said he is “very happy” with his father’s current legal team, he also shared that not much has changed. “There are people in these firms who still believe in the Constitution, but they understand that, if they do that, their other clients will disappear,” he lamented. “Even if they believe in the cause, they’re not going to take or risk the political capital of even being associated with it… because they know it’s the end of their career.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Trump by tuning in to episode 592 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.