“The diamond-sharp nail in the golden coffin”
Whether it’s the high profile January 6th Committee probe, or the confirmed Fulton County Georgia criminal investigation, or the Department of Justice, or anyone else, proving Donald Trump guilty of seditious conspiracy can be sharply aided by one piece of the puzzle. If it can be proven (not just that we all “know” it, but actually proven) that Trump knew he had lost when he took all these actions to try to remain in power, it’ll be a whole lot easier to get a criminal conviction against him.
That’s why it matters that the January 6th Committee is targeting former Trump White House spokesman Judd Deere. He was allegedly deeply intertwined with Trump’s attempts at overthrowing the election. He’s also a young guy with his whole life ahead of him, who can likely walk away from all this simply by giving up Donald Trump and others. That is, unless he wants to risk spending time in prison for contempt of Congress, and possibly more serious underlying charges, in the name of protecting Trump.
If Deere does decide to give Trump up, legal expert Joyce White Vance tweeted that “getting direct proof he knew he lost & was fighting to hold onto power nonetheless would be the nail in the coffin.” Legal expert Laurence Tribe then added that it would be the “diamond-sharp nail in the golden coffin, to be precise.”
This serves as a reminder that the most important witnesses in taking down a criminal kingpin like Trump are not necessarily the biggest names involved. Mark Meadows is still refusing to cooperate, but Meadows’ aide reportedly gave seven hours of cooperative testimony this past week. If Trump’s spokesman ends up doing the same, and he has proof that Trump knew he had legitimately lost the election at the time he tried to overthrow the results, it’ll be the most important piece of the puzzle yet in terms of putting Trump behind bars.
