As keyboard jockeys across the fruited plain remain obsessed over whether Donald Trump will be indicted over an alleged hush-money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels, breathlessly reporting on the next “breaking” story, “bombshell,” or otherwise, Trump himself remains predictably detached, instead obsessing over likely 2024 “enemy” Ron DeSantis.
While Trump dismisses the hush-money investigation as a “witch hunt,” “lies by losers, “fake news,” or other such dismissive Trumpisms, the Daniels case isn’t the half of it — literally.
Trump also faces at least three more legal cases, dismissing each in the same manner.
There is, however, one aspect of a possible indictment and arrest — in the hush-money case — in which Trump is very much interested. As I reported on Wednesday, several insiders close to the former president told media outlets that if he is arrested, Trump wants to be handcuffed behind his back, and perp-walked into the courthouse. Why, you ask?
Because he allegedly wants the whole thing to turn into a “spectacle,” in part to prove he’s not a “loser,” and also because he believes that such a production would assure his election in 2024.
But, as my colleague Nick Arama reported Wednesday, Robert Costello, legal advisor to Michael Cohen, a key witness against Trump, and also his former attorney, told the Manhattan grand jury that Cohen was a serial liar who earlier presented “far from solid evidence,” and that Cohen also told Costello he never told Trump about the payment to Daniels, which he claimed he made out his own funds.
This raises the question: Was Cohen lying then, or is he lying now? Either way, in my book, it makes him less than a credible witness.
Moreover, the grand jury’s scheduled Wednesday meeting was abruptly canceled, and on Thursday morning, it was announced that the grand jury wouldn’t meet on the Trump hush-money case, but would instead meet about another case. Since the grand jury doesn’t meet on Fridays, the Trump-Daniels case won’t be discussed until next week, presumably, that is.
So what does all of this mean? I don’t know, and neither does anyone else, particularly the pontificators whose pontifications often end up in a ditch. Therefore, I will wait to see how the case further unfolds before further commenting on it.
Anyway, let’s get to those three other cases, and where each of them currently stands, as reported by The New York Times.
Classified Documents Inquiry
Special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Justice Department, is conducting a criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of sensitive government documents after he left office.
For more than a year, Mr. Trump repeatedly resisted the federal government’s efforts — including a subpoena — to retrieve classified and sensitive documents still in his possession, according to government documents.
In August, acting on a court-approved search warrant, the F.B.I. descended on his Mar-a-Lago residence and club in Palm Beach, Fla., and discovered about 100 documents bearing classification markings.
The warrant used to justify the search detailed three criminal laws: the Espionage Act, which criminalizes the unauthorized retention of national security secrets; obstruction; and concealing or destroying government documents.
The search was prompted by the discovery that Mr. Trump had kept classified material related to the use of “clandestine human sources,” according to a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain the warrant. There was also “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found” at Mr. Trump’s house, prosecutors wrote.
The DOJ has suggested that the classified materials stored at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence were most likely concealed and moved as the government sought to recover them, and has also disclosed that it had obtained evidence that Trump’s representatives falsely claimed all sensitive material had been returned.
Again, I don’t know if the above is true, and neither does anyone else reading this article.
But I do know — and I’m loath to play the whataboutism card in most situations — Joe Biden’s reckless handling of multitudinous classified documents seems to moot the case against Trump, barring information to the contrary that’s not yet been made public.
New York State Civil Inquiry
In a September 2022 lawsuit, New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump of lying to lenders and insurers by fraudulently overvaluing his assets by billions of dollars.
James is seeking to bar the Trumps, including his sons Donald Jr. and Eric and his older daughter, Ivanka, from running a business in New York again. She has already successfully requested that a judge appoint an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization’s use of its annual financial statements — in which, the attorney general says in her suit, the company overvalued its assets.
In January, a New York judge declined to dismiss the attorney general’s suit against Trump, increasing the likelihood that he will face a trial in the matter this fall. [2023]
Because James’s investigation is civil, she can sue Mr. Trump but she cannot file criminal charges.
Georgia Criminal Inquiry
Trump is also under scrutiny in Georgia, where a special grand jury recently concluded its investigation into whether the former president and his allies criminally interfered with the 2020 presidential election.
For now, the grand jury’s report on its findings remains largely secret, but its forewoman, Emily Kohrs, has said that indictments were recommended against more than a dozen people.
Asked in an interview if those included Mr. Trump, she declined to answer directly, but said: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”
Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who has led the investigation, will ultimately decide what charges to seek and then bring them before a regular grand jury. Her decision is expected by May.
[…]
Trump and his associates had numerous interactions with Georgia officials after the election, including a call in which he urged the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes,” the number he would have needed to overcome President Biden’s lead in the state.
Mere mortals [sarc] might crumble under similar circumstances, yet Donald Trump marches on — in the minds of some, wrapped in the American flag and oddly accompanied by a great lion, and in the minds of others, a baggage-laden roadblock, standing in the way of a sure Republican victory in 2024.
The Bottom Line
Regardless of what one thinks of Donald Trump, you gotta give him credit, at least in a weird way, for his ability to remain detached from reality, and instead keep his eye on the ball of his choosing.
