Jeffrey Clark just threw Donald Trump under the bus
One of the reasons people are indicted together under racketeering laws is so they’ll end up blaming each other for the shared set of charges, and turn on each other. This is crucial to getting some of them to cut deals against the others, which bolsters the odds of conviction at trial.
To that end, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark is now claiming in Fulton County court that he only took the actions he did because Donald Trump instructed him to in his role as then-President.
This is not the same thing as Clark “flipping” on Trump. If Clark were to flip on Trump, he’d be cutting a leniency or immunity deal in exchange for testifying against Trump. We’re not there yet. Instead Clark is now at the intermediary stage where he’s still insisting on pleading not guilty, and is essentially telling the courts to take it out on Trump instead.
Once Clark realizes that this new strategy of merely blaming Trump isn’t going to get him anywhere, he’ll have to seriously consider the next logical step, which would be to cut a deal against Trump. But for now it’s fair to say that Clark is indeed throwing Trump under the bus. Fani Willis has got to be loving the fact that Clark is incriminating Trump like this.
This comes after another defendant in the Fulton County case, Jenna Ellis, publicly lambasted Donald Trump. Ellis is also still maintaining her innocence, and is merely blaming Trump for her problems. But again, this is a step toward potentially cutting a deal against Trump.
Donald Trump has eighteen co-defendants in Fulton County, all of whom can get serious leniency in exchange for flipping on him. They each know that if they’re going to flip, they’ll need to do it before too many of the other co-defendants flip. It’s almost inevitable that some of them will flip on Trump.
In Jack Smith’s separate criminal case against Donald Trump, we’ve already seen Yuscil Taveras formally flip on Trump in exchange for non-prosecution. It’s always just a matter of time before somebody flips.
