By Sarah N. Lynch and Jacqueline Thomsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former&nbsp;U.S. President Donald&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;said on Tuesday&nbsp;he&nbsp;had received a letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith stating that&nbsp;he&nbsp;is a&nbsp;target&nbsp;of a grand jury investigation into efforts to overturn his&nbsp;2020&nbsp;presidential&nbsp;election&nbsp;defeat.
A letter would represent the&nbsp;clearest sign to date that&nbsp;Trump, the&nbsp;front-runner for the&nbsp;2024 Republican presidential nomination, may face federal criminal charges around his efforts to remain in power after losing the&nbsp;election&nbsp;to Joe Biden.
Officials have testified that during his final months in office,&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;pressured them with false claims of widespread voter fraud. His supporters attacked the&nbsp;U.S. Capitol in a Jan. 6, 2021, bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden's win.
Smith "sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a&nbsp;TARGET&nbsp;of the&nbsp;January 6th Grand Jury investigation,"&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;wrote on his Truth Social media site.
His attorneys could not be reached for comment. A spokesperson for Smith's office declined to comment.
It was one of a series of developments in the&nbsp;various criminal investigations into efforts by&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;and his allies to overturn his&nbsp;election&nbsp;defeat.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Tuesday announced criminal charges against 16&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;supporters who allegedly submitted a phony slate of electors in an effort to overturn his&nbsp;2020&nbsp;defeat in that state. A prosecutor in Georgia is investigating a similar effort in that state.
Trump's legal woes have so far failed to dent his efforts to win the&nbsp;2024 Republican nomination. His lead in opinion polls has widened in recent months, with his&nbsp;unsubstantiated allegations that partisan bias was behind the&nbsp;investigations&nbsp;helping to shore up support among his base, and his Republican rivals largely joining his criticism of prosecutors.
At a town hall in Iowa with Fox News on Tuesday,&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;took personal shots at Smith while claiming, without evidence, that prosecutors were out to&nbsp;help Biden.
"This guy is a deranged prosecutor,"&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;said, referring to Smith. "He's a nasty, horrible human being."
'YOU'RE GOING TO GET INDICTED'
Peter Zeidenberg, a former federal prosecutor, said a person who receives a&nbsp;target&nbsp;letter should "presume that you're going to get indicted, unless you give us a damn good reason why we shouldn't."
Smith has already brought criminal charges against&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;in a separate federal case alleging&nbsp;he&nbsp;unlawfully retained national security documents after leaving office in 2021 and conspired to obstruct efforts to retrieve them.&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;has pleaded not guilty.
According to a court filing, Smith sent a&nbsp;target&nbsp;letter to&nbsp;Trump's lawyers in that case on May 19, roughly three weeks before&nbsp;he&nbsp;filed charges.
Trump's lawyers on Tuesday asked&nbsp;U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over that case, to consider the&nbsp;timing of his presidential campaign when deciding when the&nbsp;trial should take place. Cannon appeared skeptical of prosecutors' request for a December start, but also did not seem inclined to grant&nbsp;Trump's request for an indefinite delay.
As part of the&nbsp;2020&nbsp;election&nbsp;investigation, a grand jury at the&nbsp;federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., has&nbsp;heard testimony from high-profile former&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;administration officials, including Mike Pence, who served as&nbsp;Trump's vice president.
In his Truth Social post,&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;said Smith's office had given him "a very short 4 days" to appear before the&nbsp;grand jury in the&nbsp;probe.
In federal investigations,&nbsp;targets are sometimes provided an opportunity to testify before a grand jury if they have not already done so before prosecutors seek an indictment.
In the&nbsp;Jan. 6, 2021, rampage at the&nbsp;Capitol,&nbsp;Trump's supporters attacked police and forced lawmakers who were in the&nbsp;process of certifying the&nbsp;results of the&nbsp;2020&nbsp;election&nbsp;to flee for their lives.
The&nbsp;attack came shortly after&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;told supporters in an incendiary speech near the&nbsp;White House to march on the&nbsp;Capitol and "fight like&nbsp;hell" to "stop the&nbsp;steal" of the&nbsp;election.
More than 1,000 people have been charged with crimes connected with the&nbsp;riot, including some who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis,&nbsp;Trump's nearest rival for the&nbsp;Republican nomination, criticized the&nbsp;investigation as politically motivated and said&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;should not be charged.
"We&rsquo;ve gone down the&nbsp;road in this country of trying to criminalize differences in politics,"&nbsp;he&nbsp;said on CNN on Tuesday.
Trump&nbsp;is the&nbsp;first former president to be indicted.
In addition to the&nbsp;charges in the&nbsp;classified documents case,&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;faces New York state criminal charges accusing him of falsifying business records concerning a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy&nbsp;her silence before the&nbsp;2016&nbsp;election&nbsp;about a sexual encounter she&nbsp;has confirmed but&nbsp;he&nbsp;denies.
He&nbsp;has pleaded not guilty in that case as well.
On Monday, the&nbsp;Georgia Supreme Court rejected a bid by&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;to block a state investigation into whether&nbsp;he&nbsp;and his allies illegally attempted to meddle with Georgia's&nbsp;2020&nbsp;election.
Republican strategist Matt Dole said any indictment would likely&nbsp;help&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;with fundraising but could deter some moderate Republicans and hinder his chances in the&nbsp;general&nbsp;election.
"I do think that it gives soft&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;supporters pause and reason to look elsewhere for a candidate with&nbsp;Trump's populism, but less of the&nbsp;circus - someone like Ron DeSantis," Dole said.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Jacqueline Thomsen; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Moira Warburton, Andy Sullivan, Rami Ayyub and Nathan Layne; Editing by Scott Malone, Howard Goller, Daniel Wallis and Jamie Freed)

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Trump says he is a target in U.S. 2020 election probe