Manhattan DA’s office appears to hint at the specific date of Donald Trump’s criminal indictment
As Michael Cohen has met with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office over and over, it’s become clear that he’s the star witness in the criminal case against Donald Trump for campaign finance fraud. That meant that Cohen, as the most central witness, was likely to end up being the last person to testify to the grand jury. Even as other big names like Kellyanne Conway and David Pecker have testified to the grand jury, I’ve pointed to Cohen’s eventual grand jury testimony as the mile marker for knowing that we’re at the end of the indictment process.
So I perked up when, days ago, it was reported that Cohen would be testifying to the grand jury soon. I perked up even more earlier today, when it was reported that Cohen could testify as soon as next week. If Cohen is indeed the final witness – and he likely is – then the indictment process could be finished next week. And at that point there would be nothing else for the grand jury to do except spit out the indictment immediately thereafter.
Then this tweet arrived this afternoon from respected longtime White House correspondent Brian Karem:
I just got a cryptic comment from a source close to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office:
“Beware the Ides of March”
Whoa. That’s something. For reference, the Ides of March specifically refers to March 15th. That’s next Wednesday. First we find out Michael Cohen could be giving the final witness testimony to the grand jury next week, and now someone close to the District Attorney is telling everyone to circle next Wednesday on their calendars. Could this mean that Cohen is going to testify on, say, Monday, and the indictment is going to be issued on Wednesday?
Adding to the intrigue, after Karem posted this tweet, Michael Cohen retweeted it. This isn’t confirmation that the Manhattan DA will criminally indict Donald Trump next Wednesday. But it sure feels like it’s pretty close to confirmation. At this point the most pessimistic interpretation you could give all of this is that, what, perhaps they merely mean the week of March 15th? So what, maybe we’re stuck waiting until March 17th? For reference, today is March 8th. Whatever this is, we’re that close to it.
In other words, we’re here now. We’re at the point where the Manhattan DA’s office appears to be using media leaks to prepare the public for the actual date of Donald Trump’s indictment, and the star witness in the case appears to be signaling his expectation that this is indeed when it’s all going down.
If the Manhattan DA is now going the route of preparing the public for Trump’s imminent indictment, the next likely step would be for his office to begin giving major newspapers some details about which precise charges Trump is being indicted on. So that’s what we’ll be watching for over the next few days.
