Donald Trump has said he has received a letter notifying him he is a target in a US Justice Department investigation into efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he received the letter informing him on Sunday night.

Such a letter can precede an indictment and is used to advise individuals that prosecutors have evidence linking them to a crime.

The former president received one ahead of being charged last month in a separate investigation into the mishandling of classified documents.

A spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith, whose office is leading the investigation, declined to comment.

In the post, Trump wrote that “they have now effectively indicted me three times…. with a probably fourth coming from Atlanta”, and added in capital letters: “This witch hunt is all about election interference and a complete and total (political) weaponisation of law enforcement!”

Trump’s mention of Atlanta appears to refer to prosecutors in Georgia who are conducting a separate investigation into attempts by Trump to reverse his election loss in that state.

The top prosecutor in Fulton County signalled she expects to announce charging decisions in the coming weeks.

Mr Smith has been tasked by the US Attorney General Merrick Harland to examine Trump’s role in the 6 January attack on the Capitol and his mishandling of government records.

Trump, the frontrunner for the Republic nomination in the 2024 presidential election, was indicted last month on 37 felony counts accusing him of illegally keeping hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.

He pleaded not guilty.