Donald Trump has chalked up a lot of firsts. First president to be a chum of Russian president Vladimir Putin. First president to threaten withdrawal from NATO. Now add a new one: first former president to be indicted on seven federal counts, which is a polite way of saying that a serial prevaricator has been busted for hoarding top government secrets.
Not surprisingly, Trump is fundraising off the indictment and trumpeting a fresh hoax. “I have been indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump declared on his social media site Truth Social. “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!”
Few figures have more practice at trumpeting their innocence than Trump who has been the Houdini of defendants over the decades. But his luck is no longer holding. Cracks are appearing in the facade of invincibility that Trump likes to cultivate. In May a New York jury awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million. Further indictments loom in Georgia and Washington, DC.
Leading Republicans will denounce the indictments while quietly hoping they succeed in removing Trump from contention for the presidency. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has been neutered by a MAGA faction resentful over his debt ceiling deal with President Joe Biden, was quick to enter the lists on behalf of Trump. “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice,” he declared.
But former New Jersey governor Chris Christie may well continue to break ranks with the Republican bootlickers and further assail Trump for endangering American national security.
Then there is Special Counsel Jack Smith who shrewdly decided to charge Trump in Miami rather than Washington. Trump won’t be able to bray about a tainted Washington, DC jury pool. Moreover, as a former prosecutor of national security cases told me, “The reason to bring this case in Miami rather than DC is that the acts of retaining the documents and showing them to others took place in Florida, so an indictment in DC could not have included those. Miami is a tougher jury pool for the government but Jack Smith obviously thought it was worth it.”
For all the bluster that being indicted is a good thing for Trump, he clearly wanted to avoid it, sending his lawyers to meet with the Justice Department to try and persuade it to retreat. They failed. Now Trump faces protracted litigation that holds the threat of a prison sentence.
The conventional wisdom is that the indictment will mark a uniquely contentious time in American history. But the trial might turn out to be a fairly dry affair, a recitation of Trump’s various crimes and follies. Trump will be counting on his ability to rouse his followers but many Americans may simply greet his indictment with a yawn.
After all, Wall Street is officially in a bull market. Unemployment is low. Inflation is coming down. What’s not to like?
For Biden, a strong economy will be to his reelection. But it’s also possible the current kerfuffle over Trump and his legal woes will bury the shenanigans of Hunter Biden. While Republicans will vainly protest that he’s the real malefactor, Trump’s own narcissistic bellyaching about his predicament will alone obliterate most other news coverage, obscuring not only Hunter but also Joe. Watch for Biden to run another stealth campaign for the presidency, only from the White House this time. The more Trump bleats about his innocence, the more Biden will benefit.
