Donald Trump’s lawyers try to pick a scapegoat, give away that they expect the DOJ to take Trump down

Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Over the past week various major media outlets have collectively reported that DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith had three of Donald Trump’s own attorneys testify against him to a federal grand jury in early January. It’s never been clear who leaked this information or why. But it did give away that the DOJ has been working on precisely what we said from the start it would do: it’s looking to turn Trump’s own attorneys into cooperating witnesses against him, in order to ensure a conviction at trial. It’s how the DOJ always takes down crime bosses. Now there’s a new twist.

Someone is now leaking to Rolling Stone that Donald Trump’s legal team has told him that the DOJ will “very likely” indict his attorney Evan Corcoran for obstruction. Moreover, Trump’s legal team is telling him that Corcoran will be the only one indicted, and that Trump will somehow magically go free in the process. This leak is strange, on so many levels.

First, there’s no scenario – none – absolutely none whatsoever – where Evan bleeping Corcoran gets indicted for this instead of Donald Trump. That notion is laugh out loud delusional. If the DOJ does indict Corcoran, it’ll obviously be to force him to cut a deal against Trump. That’s how the DOJ operates in these kinds of cases, and everyone knows it.

Second, Corcoran is one of the three Trump attorneys who have reportedly been testifying against Trump to the DOJ grand jury. When prosecutors put someone in front of the grand jury, it’s usually a sign that they’re not looking to indict that person. Instead they’re giving that person the chance to help take someone more important down.

Yet now, even as the available clues point to the DOJ being in the process of getting Corcoran to help take Trump down, Trump’s other legal people are (incorrectly) telling Trump that the DOJ is going to indict Corcoran instead of indicting Trump. Why feed Trump this line of crap? Do they actually have the sense that Corcoran is indeed about to be indicted, and they’re trying to keep Trump calm by tricking him into believing that Corcoran’s indictment will be the end of Trump’s troubles?

Or is this such a desperate short term gambit on the part of Trump’s lawyers, they don’t even care about how foolish they’ll look in Trump’s eyes when Corcoran cuts a deal instead of getting indicted? That doesn’t even make sense. But when things get as desperate at they are in Trump land, with three of his attorneys having already testified against him to a grand jury, everyone in Trump land is likely in full panic mode and just throwing things at the wall in the hope any of it might buy them a day or two.

We’ll see where this goes. But regardless of what anyone’s motivations might be, we now know that Donald Trump’s own attorneys are preparing him for indictments to start dropping. And if they really are telling Trump that a Corcoran indictment means Trump somehow won’t be indicted (it would mean the precise opposite), then they really are just trying to keep Trump calm and remain employed while the DOJ finishes taking Trump down.