So when and where is Donald Trump getting criminally indicted next?
Even with all the real time information that was surfacing near the end of Donald Trump’s criminal indictment process in Manhattan, it ended up being tricky to try to predict precisely when the indictment would come down. Fewer details have been surfacing in Trump’s other criminal indictments, making it even trickier to predict them. It’s difficult to make anything more than semi-educated guesses when it comes to those cases, which is really just an opportunity to be proven wrong. That said, a few clues have been emerging which may potentially point to a certain order and timeframe to Trump’s remaining indictments.
Over the weekend the New York Times published an article which suggested that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is waiting for grand jury time to become available the second week of May, and from there her indictment process will only take a day or two. It’s not clear if the Times is actually getting this from Willis or if it’s a mere hypothesis. If it is the former, then we’re looking at Trump being indicted in Georgia just about one month from now. Of course even if this is coming from Willis, it could be an intentional misdirect. We all watched the media freak out about a Manhattan grand jury that was coming up, only for the Manhattan DA to go in and indict Trump the next day.
Then there’s the pair of DOJ criminal cases against Donald Trump, one investigating stolen classified documents, the other investigating January 6th and election related crimes, both headed by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Best anyone can tell from the outside, Trump attorney Evan Corcoran was the final grand jury witness in the classified documents case, meaning it’s probably finished. There has been major media reporting that even though the appeals court forced Corcoran to immediately testify last month, it’s still waiting until May to confirm how much of that testimony will be allowed to be used. But these kinds of things can change, and if anything we’ve seen the appeals court ruling more swiftly on these Trump cases as they’ve gone on.
In the other DOJ case against Donald Trump, the appeals court recently ruled that the likes of Mark Meadows and Stephen Miller must immediately testify against Trump to the grand jury, and we don’t know if that’s happened yet. Mike Pence also announced days ago that he’s not appealing the lower court ruling that he must testify. We don’t know if Trump is trying to appeal this without Pence’s help, or if this is a settled matter. And we don’t know whether Pence has already testified.
While the DOJ’s classified documents case appears to be at the finish line, the DOJ’s January 6th / election related case appears to be near the finish line. What we don’t know is whether Jack Smith is planning to wait until both these indictments are ready and bring them at the same time, or if he’s planning to bring each indictment separately once it’s ready. If they are coming separately, the January 6th indictment would seem to be at least a couple weeks off, while the classified documents indictment could potentially drop at any moment. It could hypothetically drop later today for all we know.
One big clue is that Donald Trump spent all day Sunday pushing back in cartoonishly obsessive fashion against the classified documents case. One thing we’ve learned about Trump’s behavior is that when he flat out announces that something is going to happen – such as his arrest being on a certain day, or the Manhattan case against him having supposedly been dropped – he’s generally lying. But when he starts frantically and obsessively railing against something that hasn’t happened yet, it’s often a giveaway that he’s been tipped off that the thing he’s railing against is indeed about to happen.
In other words, has some witness or attorney involved with the grand jury process tipped off to Donald Trump that he is indeed being imminently indicted by the DOJ in the classified documents case? Has the DOJ privately given him notice that he’s being indicted? Trump seems certain this indictment is about to come down – and you can take that for whatever it is or isn’t worth.
So where does all of this get us? As I said, trying to predict these things with any precision is just an opportunity to take semi-educated guesses based on limited information and likely to end up being proven wrong. But it is worth continuing to monitor these endgame developments as these other prosecutors close in. Donald Trump’s remaining indictments will happen when they happen. That’s not something we can influence or control. But it sure does seem like we’re getting close, doesn’t it?
