The real reason Special Counsel Jack Smith is empaneling new grand jury against Donald Trump
When the news broke on Thursday that Special Counsel Jack Smith had empaneled a new federal grand jury against Donald Trump, it set off a range of reactions. Some took it to mean that things are really getting ramped up now. Others asked why a grand jury was just now being empaneled. But the real story is something different.
It turns out the existing federal grand jury in the DOJ criminal probe into Donald Trump is expiring. And per Bloomberg, Smith is empaneling a new one. In fact it’s already happened, and the way we know it’s happened is that the latest DOJ grand jury subpoenas are coming from a different grand jury than the previous one. So what does this mean?
The short answer is that grand juries are made up of ordinary citizens who don’t want to be on a jury forever because they eventually need to get back to their lives. In longer-running criminal probes, it’s common for prosecutors to use one grand jury to handle initial subpoenas and evidence gathering, and then use a fresh grand jury to hear final testimony and issue indictments.
So this development isn’t necessarily a big deal. Grand juries can be extended, and this one wasn’t, so you can read into that what you will. Some will take this to mean that Jack Smith is starting fresh with a new grand jury because he’s entering the indictment phase, and that’s certainly possible. Everything we’re lately seeing points to this being endgame stuff. So if this new grand jury is about to start dropping indictments, that’s not going to surprise anyone.
One thing to keep in mind: even though this grand jury has been empaneled through March of 2023, that doesn’t necessarily mean Smith expects to wait that long to indict Donald Trump. Rather, March is the longest that Smith expects this grand jury could possibly have to remain empaneled. So does this point to Trump being on track to be indicted in February? January? Tomorrow? It’s anyone’s guess. But if Trump weren’t being indicted, Smith wouldn’t be empaneling a new grand jury at all.
