Trump skates again

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 03:09 pm:

These threats are not actually idle.  In some cases, having to "lawyer up" to even baseless lawsuits can be ruinous financially, and often enough, that's why they bring them.

UPDATE 10/15/2025:

Getting ready for the trials

Special counsel Jack Smith has added a veteran war crimes prosecutor — who served as Smith’s deputy during his stint at the Hague — to his team as it prepares to put former President Donald Trump on trial in Washington and Florida.

Alex Whiting worked alongside Smith for three years, helping prosecute crimes against humanity that occurred in Kosovo in the late 1990s. The Yale-educated attorney also worked as a prosecutor with the International Criminal Court from 2010 to 2013.

[...]

In addition to his war crimes work — which also included a five-year stint as a trial lawyer for three war crimes prosecutions stemming from the war in Kosovo — he also spent seven years prosecuting organized crime in Boston for the Justice Department from 1995 to 2002./>
[...]

[A] POLITICO reporter observed Whiting at the U.S. district courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and Thursday, spending several hours monitoring the trial of a Jan. 6 defendant. The judge in the case is Tanya Chutkan, who is slated to preside over Trump’s trial in March on federal charges stemming from his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

  Politico

Alex Whiting

Jack Smith

UPDATE 10/15/2025:  Trump 2.0:  Case closed.  

And another thing...

In a closed-door interview on Monday with Bernard Kerik, investigators asked multiple questions about the Save America PAC’s enormous fundraising haul in the weeks between Election Day and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to Kerik’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore.

[...]

The special counsel has long been thought to be scrutinizing whether Trump or his PAC violated federal laws by raising money off claims of voter fraud they knew were false. Last week’s indictment of Trump, on charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, did not include any allegations of financial crime.

But the interview with Kerik, a longtime ally of Rudy Giuliani, shows that Smith’s team is still gathering information about how Trump and his allies handled the post-election period, and that investigators’ interest in Trump-related finances continues.

[...]

Months after Trump left office, Giuliani’s allies urged him to use Save America funds to pay Giuliani for his post-election legal work, according to The New York Times.

Parlatore said Smith’s team didn’t ask any questions about Jenna Ellis –– another lawyer who worked on Trump’s efforts to contest the election –– or about Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff in his final days as president.

  Politico

Rudy in the crosshairs here. (If Kerik's lawyer is to be believed anyway.)

The team did ask a few questions about Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer who worked with Trump after Election Day and who now works on his campaign and as his in-house counsel.

The person most people think at this point is co-conspirator #6 in United States v. Trump, and whose phone is now in the possession of the feds.

And the investigators asked multiple questions about Justin Clark, who was deputy campaign manager of Trump’s re-election bid, Parlatore added.

[...]

Kerik described to the special counsel’s team a contentious phone call where Giuliani yelled at Clark and called him a liar, Parlatore said.

....but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Another looney toons bleat from 45

1)  The case is not fake.  It's very real.

2)  He called for a "FEDERAL TAKEOVER" of what?  Washington, DC?  That's the most federal place in the country.  Who does he think it belongs to?

3)  He wants a trial in a place where the crime was not committed, but that contains people who vote for him.  Let me guess: he's quite happy to leave the Mar-A-Lago documents theft case in a super-Trump Florida courthouse with a Trump-appointed judge who has already proven she's willing to tilt his way.  That venue is fine.

4)  Yes, this indictment is about election interference.  Just not the election he's talking about.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Helpful annotated indictment

UPDATE 06:53 pm:

Tomorrow in Trump trials

Donald Trump is due to appear in court on Thursday after federal prosecutors indicted the ex-president for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

[...]

Prosecutors will outline the four conspiracy and obstruction counts Trump faces and a judge will set bail conditions in the latest criminal case before the former president, weeks after he was charged with retaining national defence information.

The judge will also set out a schedule for pretrial motions and discovery.

  Guardian

And I'm operating under the assumption that Jack Smith will be there to stare a hole through Trump like he did last time.

Also...

Strongly agree, but he won't do it.

The truly most dire/damming nugget from the indictment

"...the right to vote, and to have one's vote counted."

This is what Trump and all his co-conspirators and supporters meant to take from every American citizen.  And this is what Republicans are doing all over the states even today.

Also...

UPDATE 09:17 am:  (Jeffrey Clark is #4)

The judge

Trump indictment

There are six co-conspirators described, but not named. (Forty-five pages of indictment for Pres 45, and a running total of 78 counts for the 78-year-old criminal.)

It's obvious from the pleading that Co-Conspirator 1 is Rudy, and 3 is Sidney Powell.  Eastman says he's Co-Conspirator 2.  No. 4 is likely Jeffrey Clark.

"Defendant's Chief of Staff" is mentioned in the indictment but not named as a co-conspirator, so I think it's safe to say Meadows is cooperating.  If so, it's game over for Trump.

UPDATE 07:01 pm:

UPDATE 08/02/2023:

UPDATE 08/02/2023 08:09 am:

Or....

Also....helpful....

UPDATE 08/06/2023:  It has been noted that co-conspirator #6 is not likely Mike Roman because he's named elsewhere in the indictment, leaving it most likely #6 is Boris Epshteyn.

And there it is

The federal grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election handed up an indictment on Tuesday in the federal courthouse in Washington, DC.

The foreperson of the grand jury along with a Justice Department prosecutor were present in the courtroom when the indictment was returned. A judge agreed to seal the indictment for the moment.

There was no information given in court about the number of defendants or the identity of any defendant. The judge also approved a summons for the unidentified defendant or defendants to appear in court.

  Post News

Well, shoot.

A federal magistrate judge in D.C. received a sealed indictment shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

The indictment was delivered by prosecutor Molly Gaston to Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya during a brief proceeding in the courthouse where the Trump grand jury has been meeting.

No initials were provided of the defendant, which sometimes occurs. Gaston asked that the indictment be placed under seal and a summons be issued.

  The Hill

Does that mean they think someone would abscond if they found out they're named?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 04:51 pm:

Wow.

UPDATE 07:25 pm:

It's coming....

“I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

  The Hill

We'll be here.  I hope Smith is going to do a press conference on it.

"Fake indictment."  Dude, they're quite real.

UPDATE 08/02/2023:

And...Smith DID do a presser.

With bated breath

What a tease.

UPDATE 01:44 pm:

UPDATE 03:58 pm:

“I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

  The Hill

It's coming

UPDATE 03:03 pm:  LOL

That's rich.  How about all the lawyers (and judges) who told him he lost and needed to shut up and sit down?

FURTHER UPDATE :

Looks like maybe a one-two punch...