“Pretrial seizure of funds”
When the news broke on Thursday that Jack Smith’s Washington DC grand jury was back in session, Palmer Report pointed out that it could be in relation to any number of Trump-related crimes – but one way or another it was a sign of charges and indictments to come. By rule grand juries can only convene for the purpose of pursuing potential charges and indictments, not simply for further investigation of charges that have already been brought.
Various legal experts are now placing their bets on what they think Jack Smith’s grand jury is now focused on. Tim Hogan says he suspects it’s related to the Trump world people who were working with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, which would make sense timing-wise. But Andrew Weissman tweeted that “I still have my money on a case against the PAC for fraud, and pretrial seizure of funds.”
The latter would make for a remarkable turn of events. Donald Trump has reportedly raked in hundreds of millions of dollars by falsely claiming that he won the 2020 election. If it can be proven that Trump knew he’d lost when he made those claims, then that fundraising was an act of fraud – which comes with criminal charges – and the money is subject to seizure. It’s previously been reported that Jack Smith has indeed been investigating this money trail, including having his grand jury subpoena the Trump PACs involved.
Of course no one knows for sure what Jack Smith and his grand jury are now doing, and even the experts are merely taking educated guesses. Perhaps actual inside information about the grand jury will leak to major news outlets soon. But if this is about Trump’s fraudulent fundraising, then we could indeed be looking at Jack Smith going after Trump’s money before things even get to trial.
