Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seemingly defended Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump after the former president said he expected to be arrested and indicted in special counsel Jack Smith's January 6 probe.
Smith reportedly sent a letter to the former president, according to a post published by Trump on Truth Social, stating that he's a "target" in the investigation into the 2021 riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump has already been indicted twice this year: once by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for alleged hush money payments made prior to the 2016 election; and for allegedly mishandling classified documents and never properly returning them all to the federal government once out of office. Trump has maintained his innocence regarding January 6 and all other legal matters.
"There's a difference between being brought up on criminal charges and doing things," DeSantis said Tuesday during a campaign stop in Colombia, South Carolina, where he officially filed to be on the statewide ballot. "For example, it was shown how [Trump] was in the White House and didn't do anything while things were going on. He should have come out more forcefully, of course."
He added: "But to try to criminalize that, that's a different issue entirely and I think that we want to be in a situation where, you know, you don't have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail. And that unfortunately is what we're seeing now."
Newsweek reached out to the DeSantis campaign via email for comment.
DeSantis' comments were viewed as a verbal attack by Trump's campaign.
Longtime Trump adviser Steven Cheung told Newsweek: "A disqualifying take from an unserious candidate in the last throes of his failed candidacy."
The DeSantis campaign, courtesy of their online DeSantis War Room account, tweeted that the Trump team is "lying once again and purposely taking @RonDeSantis out of context."
Team Trump lying once again and purposely taking @RonDeSantis out of context.
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) July 18, 2023
Here’s his full answer: “So look, there’s a difference between being brought up on criminal charges and doing things like, for example, I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn’t do… https://t.co/Nhe7D6CSxV pic.twitter.com/h89QggvarG
Trump wrote on Truth Social that the target letter provides him with "a very short four days to report to the grand jury," viewed by legal experts as the calm before the legal storm.
"If it is true the former president has received a target letter and an invitation to meet with the January 6 grand jury in four days, I think the most plausible interpretation is that Jack Smith is very close to asking that grand jury to indict Trump," Clark Cunningham, law professor at Georgia State University, told Newsweek.
Cunningham added: "It's a reasonable guess that Smith wants to obtain a federal indictment for election interference before the Fulton grand jury issues a similar indictment in early August."
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also investigating Trump in relation to the 2020 election, based on a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the former president is accused of wanting the election official to reevaluate the state's electoral results.
"I think an indictment [for January 6 involvement] is imminent, if not in a matter of days or weeks," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek.
Rahmani predicts charges for conspiracy to defraud the United States, as well as conspiring or attempting to obstruct initial proceedings. He called seditious conspiracy charges "less likely" due to Smith's steadfast demeanor.
"Smith has been pretty cautious...My guess is he will probably take a more cautious approach," he said, adding that the DOJ is operating from the standpoint of either filing charges quickly or not all due to the impending primary and general elections.
