Major media outlets are finally warming up to the growing signs that the DOJ may be criminally targeting Donald Trump
Signs have been brewing for months that the DOJ might be criminally targeting Trump, which we’ve been steadily documenting here at Palmer Report. Now that major media outlets are finally waking up to this trend, it’s a good time to revisit what the DOJ would want to have in hand in order to charge Trump: one or more key co-conspirators flipping on him.
To get a trial conviction against a crime boss like Trump who mostly doesn’t do his own dirty work, rarely uses email or texts, and often gives henchmen instructions in code words, you need one of those henchmen to testify that Trump really was instructing them to commit the crimes they committed.
That’s why it’s so crucial that Roger Stone’s Oath Keeper driver cut a seditious conspiracy plea deal last week. If the DOJ can convince Stone that it has him nailed, and that he’s better off flipping now than going to trial, the DOJ gains a witness who can get Trump convicted.
It’s also why the DOJ case against Rudy Giuliani, which was stalled by the courts for about eight months in a battle over attorney-client privilege that was just recently resolved (largely in the DOJ’s favor), is now so relevant.
It’s why the text of the Steve Bannon contempt indictment, which felt plucked from a much broader DOJ case against Bannon, is so interesting. It’s also why Bannon is trying to use the court proceedings for his contempt charge to find out what else the DOJ has on him. Bannon is trying to figure out whether the DOJ just has him for contempt, which could just be a year in prison and then he moves on with his life, or if the DOJ has him nailed on so many more serious things that he’ll have to cut a cooperation deal.
It’s also why it’s so intriguing that three months into the Mark Meadows contempt referral, the DOJ still hasn’t indicted him, and yet the January 6th Committee still hasn’t publicly complained about it. Has Meadows flipped? Are broader charges coming against him? We don’t know. But even as the committee has publicly complained about the possible lack of a DOJ case against Trump, isn’t hasn’t complained about the Meadows indictment taking so long. Does it know something?
There are still more unknowns than knowns, but we do know some things: Stone is nailed for 1/6. Giuliani appears nailed for dirty foreign money. Bannon and Meadows are nailed for at least contempt. All four are ultimately heading to prison. But the key question is whether they know they’re nailed and will flip, or if they delusionally think they’ll get off free.
The secondary question is whether Bannon and Meadows are willing to do perhaps a year in prison for contempt, if the DOJ doesn’t have them nailed on more serious charges. Stone and Giuliani are nailed on serious charges that are a de facto life sentence at their age.
“So if the DOJ has Stone and Giuliani nailed already, why not just indict them?” Because it’s not about nailing them. It’s about nailing them so thoroughly, they REALIZE they’re nailed, and flip. Otherwise you have to wait a long time for their trial conviction, before they flip.
Indicting Trump’s people right now, and then waiting forever for them to finally go to trail and get convicted before they realize they have to flip, is actually the DOJ’s slow path for getting to Trump. Piling on with more and more evidence now, so they flip instead of going to trial, is the quicker path for the DOJ to get to Trump.
