The revised indictment added three serious charges against Mr. Trump: attempting to “alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence”; inducing someone else to do so; and a new count under the Espionage Act related to a classified national security document that he showed to visitors at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
The updated indictment was released on the same day that Mr. Trump’s lawyers met in Washington with prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, to discuss a so-called target letter that Mr. Trump received this month suggesting that he might soon face an indictment in a case related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It served as a powerful reminder that the documents investigation is ongoing, and could continue to yield additional evidence, new counts and even new defendants.
Prosecutors under Mr. Smith had been investigating Mr. De Oliveira for months, concerned, among other things, by his communications with an information technology expert at Mar-a-Lago, Yuscil Taveras, who oversaw the surveillance camera footage at the property.
He ordered his employees to wipe information he knew the DOJ was looking for because he understood it would incriminate him.
So, what I'm gleaning is the 1/6 indictments are still in the pipeline, and this indictment is to keep Trump lawyers in mind that the charges can always be added to. For just how obviously ham-fisted the cover-up at Mar-a-Lago has been, recall these guys didn't just move boxes of White House docs where there was a surveillance camera that had data to be subpoenaed but the boobs tried to flood the area by draining a pool.
Also, the Iran document that Trump both agreed he had and didn't want to say he had, has been verified as in this mook's possession and a big problem for him.
Now, as for me, I will say that does look bad, and is bad. But we've been getting stories dropped about just who Jack Smith and the DOJ have been speaking with and what it's been about for a while now, which is what has raised the hackles of those waiting on these 1/6 indictments. Is Mark Meadows cooperating--because he's been very quiet. In public. Is Giuliani cooperating--I mean besides that proffer meeting, we might read something into his recent admission he lied WRT the Georgia election workers he defamed. Is he trying to reconcile his testimony there (even if it brings a penalty) because it might protect him from perjuring himself and fucking up a deal he made elsewhere?
Giuliani might pretend he's only conceding he lied about Moss and Freeman to avoid whatever, but the reality is--he isn't off the hook yet. By no means. (And for what harms he caused, that he doesn't acknowledge, he deserves to get hammered.)
But what about Trump--the candidate? Well. his fundraising is going about 50% to his current legal fees, so that's something we can talk about. Trump fans might not have accepted this yet, but his running right now is about keeping himself out of prison. He can say all he wants that he's getting indicted "For you"--his little fanclub, or supposedly, the good of the country. But the fact that he's indicted this time for maneuvers to try and keep his dumb ass from providing incriminating evidence might just start to convince the fans that maybe--he did something criminal.
After all, they are starting to realize that his claims that he won the election was a lie (see Steve Deace and John Cardillo) and that he's sent 1/6 protestors and rioters and all to prison sentences and financially fucked them over while fundraising to save his own ass.
I don't know about the long run, yet, but I think we will see more indictments quickly, and the more Trump's fans see of what he really has been about, the more disillusioned they may become. Because the truth is out there, now. And we're hearing more all the time.
And look, the Georgia indictments look to be dropping soon and Michigan is not playing around withthe Trump faithful.
These TrumpWorld Grab-bags are going to be so full. I am going to be so tired. (But grateful.)
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