How Jack Smith managed to pull this rabbit out of his hat against Donald Trump
What we’re seeing play out right now is nothing short of remarkable. A federal judge ruled just a few days ago that Donald Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran had to give incriminating testimony against him to a grand jury, Trump appealed, and today the Court of Appeals ruled against him. Now multiple major news outlets are reporting that Trump won’t even bother to appeal to the Supreme Court because he knows he’d immediately lose, and Corcoran is set to testify to the grand jury this Friday.
Some observers have said that it’s starting to feel like, after a very long time of “nothing” happening in this case, Jack Smith has suddenly pulled a rabbit out of his hat. But it’s important to understand that none of what we’re seeing play out right now could have happened until now. Smith and the DOJ got here by spending a long time painstakingly piecing together the entire rest of the story, so they could get the courts to order Trump’s attorney to testify, and so he would know he has to tell the truth.
When the Feds first went into Trump’s home, I said that to nail him on charges like espionage or obstruction, they’d have to prove intent – which would require inside witnesses – and that his own attorneys appeared to be the only such witnesses.
That’s why the DOJ went through all those rounds of asking Trump’s attorneys to do their own searches, and to sign things to that effect. That wasn’t the DOJ playing nice or naively trusting them. That was the DOJ gradually cornering Trump’s attorneys, to put them on a path to eventually having no choice but to become witnesses against him in order to keep themselves out of prison. All of those maneuvers and interactions back then were with the specific intent of setting things up so that today would happen. It’s been the strategy all along, and the DOJ has been progressing with that strategy all along.
Even while so many folks on social media were angrily yelling “DOJ is doing nothing” and so many pundits on social media were capitalizing on that outrage, the DOJ was busy doing the painstaking and lengthy grunt work required to set things up so that what we’re now seeing play out was possible.
What we’re seeing happen right now could not have happened six months ago. If the DOJ had indicted Trump right after going into his home, it would have gone into trial with no witnesses confirming Trump’s intent to steal the documents and/or hide them from investigators. Trump would likely have been acquitted. Instead the DOJ spent these months incrementally cornering Trump’s own attorneys into becoming witnesses against him, which means he’ll likely be convicted at trial.
