Have You Read Trump's "WOW!" Letter From The Department Of Justice Yet?

Is Accountability Finally Catching Up To Señor T?

On August 4, billionaire and former Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is hosting an event as one of his mansion— this one in the Hamptons— to introduce Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to other fat-cats and to persuade him ti run against Trump. It’s become clear DeSantis is the wrong Republican for the job. And Republican billionaires are getting nervous that they’re going to be stuck with Trump again, who, they feel, can’t beat Biden. And speaking of clear, Ross’ invitation went out moments after Trump made it clear that he’s being indicted again, this time for trying to overthrow the government after he lost in 2020— i.e., a coup attempt. Although... Jana Winter, reporting for Rolling Stone last night, wrote that Jack Smith’s letter doesn’t mention insurrection or sedition, so if you were hoping the Justice Department was finally getting serious about putting Trump in front of a firing squad or in prison for life… forget it. The federal statutes it does mention include the kinds of stuff only lawyers understand the seriousness of— charges that are easily dismissed as frivolous in the minds of MAGAts: “conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States; deprivation of rights under color of law; and tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant.

And not all Republicans reacted the way Ross did. Trump's chief rival, Meatball Ron, defended him, claiming that any indictment would be part of “an attempt to criminalize politics and to try to criminalize differences.” Marjorie Traitor Greene told the media that “This is absolute bullshit. This is weaponized government. Democrats can’t win an election so they have to arrest their political opponents.” She kept going on Twitter later:

Reporting on the letter for the NY Times, Maggie Haberman and her colleagues wrote Señor Trumpanzee “has received a so-called target letter in connection with the criminal investigation into his efforts to hold onto power after he lost the 2020 election, Trump and people familiar with the case said on Tuesday, a sign that he is likely to be indicted in the case. It was not clear what aspects of the sprawling investigation the letter may be related to. The investigation has examined an array of schemes that Trump and his allies had used to try to stave off defeat, including the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by his supporters at the Capitol. The letter was the second Trump received from the special counsel, Jack Smith, notifying Trump that he is a target in a federal investigation. The first, in June, was in connection to the inquiry into Trump’s handling of national defense material after he left office and his alleged obstruction of efforts to retrieve it. Days after that letter became public, Trump was charged with 37 criminal counts covering seven different violations of federal law.”

Shortly after disclosing that he'd received a target letter from the Justice Department, Trump was using it to solicit campaign donations. “Please make a contribution to show that you will NEVER SURRENDER our country to tyranny as the Deep State things try to JAIL me for life,” he said in an email to supporters. Similar appeals have been successful: His joint fund-raising committee said it raised $4 million in the 24 hours after he was indicted in late March by New York prosecutors, and $6.6 million in the days after his indictment in June by the special counsel.

…Any charges in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia— where the Jan. 6 grand jury has been operating— would obviously not just raise additional legal peril for Trump, but would come in a jurisdiction where the jury pool may be less friendly toward him on average than in the area around Palm Beach County, Fla., where Smith brought charges over Trump's hoarding of sensitive government files at his Florida club and estate, Mar-a-Lago.

Atlantic columnist David Graham wondered, like most of us what crimes Trump is being specifically being charged with in this round. “Rumored possibilities,” he offered, “include fundraising violations, the old prosecutorial workhorse of wire fraud, and even insurrection— an extremely rare charge, but one the House committee investigating January 6 referred to the Justice Department. Smith could choose to make a broad case against many participants in the paperwork coup, which would be a more complicated case but would be likely to net convictions, or he could focus more narrowly on Trump or a small cadre of aides, which could be a simpler case but would be even more politically incendiary.

[A] potential federal case related to January 6 might be the most important one. The offenses could hardly be more serious: Trump sought to thwart the will of voters, first by legal and political schemes and then, more desperately, by force. No president has ever attacked the basis of American democracy so directly; even Nixon’s misdeeds pale in comparison.

In layman’s terms, Trump is obviously guilty. Everyone watched him claim he’d won an election he didn’t. They listened to him pressuring officials including Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger to find votes for him. They heard him incite the riot on January 6. His actions were bad enough that the House of Representatives impeached him, and a majority of senators, including some Republicans, voted to convict—though still short of the two-thirds required for a conviction.

Yet something can be plainly true in common parlance and still be challenging or impossible to prove to a jury. “You and I know it, it’s not a secret, but proving it beyond a reasonable doubt, in a court of law, with admissible evidence, in a contested hearing, is a lot harder,” the former federal prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig told me earlier this year. In February, Trump released a memo laying out his likely defense against any charges related to the riot. In his statement today, he described the case against him as “election interference,” an amazing instance of I’m-rubber-you’re-glue chutzpah.

Political sensitivities are unavoidable, too. No matter what Smith might indict on, it would be unprecedented. Trump would be contesting the charges in the midst of an election. His lawyers are already seeking to push any trial in the documents case out past the 2024 election, and if he were to win, he would likely be able to order the Justice Department to close the case against him.

All of these factors mean that no one can confidently predict a conviction, much less incarceration. But a target letter related to January 6 would be one of the first concrete steps toward holding Trump accountable for his offenses against the United States.