For decades, former President Donald Trump has avoided any real legal accountability for varied alleged attempts to manipulate, defraud and deceive, all of which he has denied in many forms.
The likelihood of Trump facing criminal charges in coming days feels extraordinarily high.
But now, if public reporting is accurate, the likelihood of Trump facing criminal charges in coming days feels extraordinarily high. To be clear: No one in the media, nor any former Justice Department official, myself included, knows with certainty when, or even whether, any indictment of Trump may come.
What we do know is that the vast amount of public information and the Justice Department’s well-documented history of charging former government officials for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents does not bode well for the former president. Just last week, an air force lieutenant colonel was sentenced to three years in prison for unlawfully possessing and retaining more than 300 classified files or documents.
Trump himself seems to at least understand the legal jeopardy he is in. This week, his lawyers met with special counsel Jack Smith reportedly to discuss Smith’s two criminal investigations: the first, regarding issues related to President Joe Biden’s certification as the winner of the 2020 presidential election; and the second, involving the removal and retention of classified documents and other records at Trump’s home and exclusive club, Mar-a-Lago.
After the meeting, Trump sounded an old and tired refrain on his platform Truth Social: unfair treatment; baseless investigation; political interference.
What Trump failed to mention is that, much like the criminal investigations by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, he brought Smith’s investigations on himself. He is no victim.
Trump is the one who refused to accept the findings of countless advisers and federal judges, and his own attorney…
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