Beware the Ides of trump

Saw this tweet recently:

 

PS and by "imminent" I don't mean Fanni Willis's cryptic formulation "legally imminent." This is imminent as in next few weeks. As in Beware the Ides of March...
Prosecutors Signal Criminal Charges for Trump Are Likely https://t.co/m97jNjJYWc

— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) March 9, 2023

What this all refers to: the New York City prosecutors are about to wrap up their grand jury investigation into allegations trump paid bribes and covered up his affairs - especially with porn actress Stormy Daniels - during his 2016 Presidential campaign. From Bill Chapell and Andrea Bernstein at NPR:

Former President Donald Trump has been invited to testify before a New York City grand jury — a move that is widely understood to mean Trump could soon face criminal charges related to his financial dealings and the payment of hush money to Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star also known as Stormy Daniels.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office invited Trump to testify next week, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

In New York, an offer to speak in front of a grand jury is typically the last step before a criminal indictment. State law mandates that potential defendants must be given an opportunity to appear before a grand jury to answer questions before they are indicted...

Neither Trump nor his lawyer has signaled whether Trump would accept the invitation, but it is unlikely he would agree to appear. In recent weeks, former Trump campaign officials and business executives have traveled to the D.A.'s office in Lower Manhattan to testify under oath...

trump is unlikely to show, as all he'll do is plead the Fifth (like he did with the New York state tax fraud testimony).

Any possible indictments may not actually happen next week - as the grand jury has to deliberate matters, an official decision from the DA's office will come later - but seeing as how the deadline to testify just happens to fall near March 15th, some sense of poetic karma is in play here.

trump's been on social media screaming "WITCH HUNT" but also arguing that the statue of limitations on such investigations have passed. Under normal circumstances, he'd be right. But the DA's office apparently argued to a judge for extensions on the timeline - since trump was out-of-state between 2017 to 2021 causing damage elsewhere - to where it's unlikely trump's lawyers can throw the matter out on that technicality.

There had been a long time of inaction by Bragg - leading to several assistant DAs resigning in anger about it - to the point where nobody expected this to return as a problem for trump. However, when the criminal case into Trump Organization for tax fraud came back last December with Guilty verdicts across the board, Bragg reopened the matter with this grand jury. Something must have happened more than just the discovery that trump at last was vulnerable: reportedly the deeper examination of trump's finally-released tax returns exposed direct ties to trump's paying off his then-lawyer / bag-man Michael Cohen, which gave the DA's office proof they didn't have when they got Cohen to plead out back in 2018.

This isn't a time for celebration just yet: After all, there's no guarantees the NYC grand jury will come back with indictments to file. We're still looking at months if not years before any indictments come to actual trial, with trump kicking and screaming about it all the way down.

But this is a time for great preparation. If you're inclined, start putting in orders for the champagne. If you're concerned, start watching for angry MAGA drivers speeding about in their coal roller trucks flashing their AR-15s.

Let justice be done, America. trump is toast.