This week is going to be one that, if things come out right, Traitor Tot may look back on as the beginning of the end. Because two different things are coming to a head.
Leading off, if all goes as scheduled, there will be two J6 committee hearings this week. The Tuesday morning edition will deal with the convocation of the far right groups like the Loud Toys and the Oath Kreepers.
There will be two featured witnesses, a former Oath Kreeper spokesman, who while out of the group since late 2017, was so close that he actually lived with Elmer Stewart Rhodes and his family for a while. He will testify to how Rhodes used propaganda to radicalize new recruits into far right anti-government extremists. Maybe this is why Rhodes is suddenly so desperate to testify in front of the J6 committee.
The second witness is another young female West Wing staffer, this one a mid level employee of the WH comms shop. She quit her job on January 7th. Who knows what kind of conversations she took part of or overheard, or what drafts of prospective statements she saw?
The second, and presumably last, although with the Cipollone factor, who knows?, in prime time. This is the one that should nail Trump to the wall. This is the one that will lay down a detailed time for the 3+ hours of that the committee will almost certainly call Trump’s Dereliction of Duty on January 6th. Watch for Cipollone’s testimony to be dominant here.
But this week is critical to Trump, his family, and his entire organization in an equally desperate issue. Tomorrow starts a 6 day window in which Diaper Donnie, Diaper Donnie Redux, and Trump Barbie are all required to show up for separate, under oath depositions for NY Attorney General Letitia James in her civil investigation into his business practices. Yup, Trump’s egg timer finally went Ding!
In some ways, James’s civil investigation into his business is an even more pressing and immediate issue than the J6 committee hearings. After all, the committee can’t prosecute, only issue a report, and possibly a criminal referral. And who knows how long the DOJ investigation will take, and whether any charges actually touching Trump are ever actually filed?
But the NY AG’s investigation is a whole nother kettle of fish. In a civil investigation like this, your target is your hole card. You do your due diligence, gather evidence, issue and execute search warrants, call witnesses before a grand jury for their under oath testimony. You scrape loose every last fact and piece of evidence that you can. Then, and only then, do you bring your target(s) in for deposition, when you can hit them with everything you’ve got.
The fact that they’re holding the depositions this week sends up a bright red signal flare. The Letitia James investigation is over. The investigation has been collecting evidence and information from day one, and they have been collating and integrating that information as they went along. The package is tight, coherent, and cohesive. That’s why they’re deposing the Trump mob.
And once that’s done, we’re at endgame in the James investigation. All that’s left now is for the team to get together, analyze the testimony from The Gang That Couldn’t Shit Straight, match it up against all of their other testimony and evidence, and decide what if any charges they can file.
Look, the J6 committee and the DOJ are investigating events on and around January 6th, 2021. They have until December or January of 2026 before the statute of limitations runs out. They’re in no rush. Even if the GOP takes over, it would be hard to stop an independent DOJ investigation, but who knows. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if Letitia James announces any new civil charges or indictments right around the Labor Day timeframe, well in advance of the midterms. And Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has her special grand jury empaneled until late May of 2023. Donald Trump is going to be sitting on pins and needles, starting tomorrow, for at least the next 2 years. Don’t touch that dial.
Pretty sure that DOJ has stuff the committee doesn’t have, and could charge the former guy and his less law-abiding family members. And his staff – Meadows is likely toast.