Did Jack Smith’s 1/6 grand jury move into the indictment stage today?
Grand jury proceedings are secret by definition. That means we don’t learn about anything that’s going on in real time unless a prosecutor or target strategically gives something to the media, or the media spots a witness going in or out of the courthouse. The media, with its stakeouts, is actually pretty darn good at spotting witnesses – but they don’t always catch everyone.
That’s why it’s remarkable that Jack Smith’s January 6th grand jury met for about eight hours today, according to NBC News, but not a single known witness was spotted entering or exiting the courthouse. This only leaves two possibilities.
The first would be that the grand jury spent all day hearing from a highly sensitive witness who was snuck into the building with great care by prosecutors so that no one would spot or identify the person. This does sometimes happen. The second possibility would be that no one actually testified today – which would mean that prosecutors instead spent the day asking the grand jury to indict specific people.
If it’s the latter, we’ll find out soon enough. If any indictments have come down – or are set to come down the next time the grand jury meets – the news will break one way or the other, either from prosecutors or targets. So as always it’s a waiting game.
But it is highly notable that after so many signs over the past few weeks have pointed to Jack Smith being ready or nearly ready to start bringing criminal indictments in his January 6th probe, today’s reporting suggests that his grand jury may have indeed begun the process of bringing indictments. Buckle up.
