Donald Trump’s attorneys are still in a jam after contempt of court hearing

| 9:09 am EST December 10, 2022
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On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s lawyers leaked that they were supposedly cooperating with the Department of Justice and had turned over additional classified documents found in a Trump warehouse. On Thursday we found out why they had leaked this: the DOJ was seeking to hold them in contempt of court for their non-cooperation. On Friday that contempt hearing happened… and the judge ended up telling the DOJ and Trump’s lawyers to try to work it out together.

If the judge had held Trump’s lawyers in contempt on Friday, it would have been a clear win for the DOJ. But as things stand, this is not a defeat for the DOJ. The judge didn’t say that she’s not going to hold Trump’s lawyers in contempt; she instead told them to find a way to make the DOJ happy. This presumably means that if they continue to do very little to satisfy their evidentiary subpoenas, and instead merely keep relying on leaking their faux-cooperation to the media, the judge will hold them in contempt.

In any case, being held in contempt of court has nothing to do with whether someone is guilty of the underlying charges, nothing to do with whether they’ll be indicted for those underlying charges, and nothing to do with whether they’ll be convicted. Contempt of court is strictly a remedy for individuals who refuse to comply with a legally valid investigation.

So this move by the judge is not in any way an indicator that Trump won’t be indicted, or that Trump’s lawyers won’t be indicted, or that they’ll “get away with it all” or any of that. That’s not what contempt of court is. The two things are separate matters. Then again, this move by the judge isn’t even necessarily an indicator that she won’t end up holding them in contempt of court. She simply decided not to do it today.

In any case the DOJ’s primary criminal target is Donald Trump, not his attorneys. They’re just legal fodder. If the DOJ can forcibly flip them against Trump, it’ll increase the odds of getting a conviction against Trump at trial. But either way, Trump is getting indicted, and he’s going to prison. Given the progress made over the past month, that should be more clear than ever.