Another one of Donald Trump’s closest allies just sold him out to Jack Smith’s grand jury
Dan Scavino, one of Donald Trump’s closest political aides and a key witness to Trump’s actions relating to January 6th testified on Tuesday to Jack Smith’s grand jury, per NBC News. Because this is the first time the media has spotted Scavino at the courthouse, everyone is assuming that this was Scavino’s initial testimony. And that may prove to be true. But that’s not necessarily the case.
Keep in mind that after the appeals court cleared Mike Pence to testify, Jack Smith had him in front of the grand jury the next morning. That same appeals court cleared the way for Scavino to testify five weeks ago. Is it more likely that Smith had Scavino wait five weeks to testify, or is it more likely that Scavino testified five weeks ago and the media just didn’t spot him sneaking into the courthouse that day? The truth is, we don’t know.
The same thing goes for Mark Meadows. The appeals court also ordered him to testify five weeks ago. If he still hasn’t testified yet, the only possible reason would be that Smith hasn’t wanted him to testify yet. If Meadows is still “refusing” to testify, that’s not an option, and he’d have been hauled in for contempt by now. So did Meadows testify weeks ago and the media missed him sneaking into the building, or did Smith strategically decide to hold Meadows’ testimony until after Pence testified? Again, we don’t know.
Even if the media reports later this week that Meadows has testified, we still won’t know if it’s his first go-round or if it’s a post-Pence followup. Nor do we know, in general, how many more witnesses will testify. Of all the people who are known to have been ordered to testify by the appeals court, there are four of them who still haven’t been spotted entering the building. It’s possible that all four of them have already testified, or that none of them have already testified.
But here’s what we do know: things are moving quickly. Pence testified on Friday, and now Scavino on Tuesday. Who’s testifying today? Who’s up tomorrow? This is endgame stuff. We don’t know how many more witnesses Jack Smith still has to put in front of (or bring back to) the grand jury. But it all seems to have already been lined up, and it’s just a matter of knocking it all down.
I’m still not going to predict a specific date or timeframe for Jack Smith’s Trump indictment. But we’re now at the same point where we were in the Manhattan case after Michael Cohen testified. The star witness (Pence in this case) has already finished, and we’re just waiting for an unknown amount of cleanup work to be done. Every case’s particulars are different. But in Manhattan, that cleanup work took about a week and a half before Trump was indicted.
I won’t be surprised if Jack Smith indicts Donald Trump tomorrow, or a month from now, or four days from now, or two weeks from now. We’re in that stage where it could happen at any time. We’ll all just get a news alert and go “wow” at the same time. It’s just a waiting game at this point. If you don’t enjoy the waiting game, at least you’re not the one waiting to be criminally indicted.
