Looks like we’ll have to wait at least another week before we see Traitor Tot hauled before a judge. Garrett Haake of NBC News was the first to report at just about noon PDT that there will be no indictment this week. No vote was held yesterday, Bragg has given the grand jury the day off tomorrow, and while they will meet on Thursday, it will be unaffiliated business with Trump. Which takes us to next Monday.
Which of course leads to rampant and feverish speculation on the part of the talking heads that don’t know any better. The one I like the best is that Trump called rebuttal witness Robert Costello poked so many damning holes in Michael Cohen that Bragg is now desperately trying to figure out if he even still has a case left.
Let’s be clear here. Robert Costello is a total ass clown. His mission wasn’t to dismantle Michael Cohen in front of the grand jury, his mission was a media spectacle on the courthouse steps to slander Cohen for the potential jury pool, which he did. Give me a break! Under two administrations Michael Cohen met with the Manhattan DA 20 times total, and when he took over, Bragg had 14 boxes of documents that Cohen had already provided. Costello showed up before the grand jury empty handed. How much damage could he do to Cohen?
Now my good friends and readers, let’s talk a little common sense, shall we? It was His Lowness that precipitated the crisis. Trump’s own lawyer stated publicly that The Cheeto Prophet would turn himself over voluntarily for processing if indicted. Then, while Bragg was still calling witnesses, FrankenTrump took to Bullshit Social to predict that his arrest would come on the next Tuesday, and calling for protests in the streets to take our country back! Read another Capitol riot.
Which started the wheels turning every which way. After, a potential Hair Twitler indictment wouldn’t just be the first indictment of a former President, it would be a logistical nightmare. especially when The Tonka Toy Tycoon was calling for massive and possibly violent protests if one single hair of the dead muskrat on top of his pointy head was touched.
So the FBI, Secret Service, the NYPD, an their Joint Anti Terrorism Task Force got together to coordinate. And being professionals that know their job, the coordinated well. The optimum plan was to plan the public release of the indictments to take place when Trump was already in New York, allowing him to whisk in for processing and his preliminary hearing before the Trombie Walking Dead could shamble into Manhattan to cause trouble. Sounds good to me.
Which brings us to last week and today. To indict Trump. Last week Bragg had all the time in the world to ask the grand jury to indict Trump. And instead he punted. He booted on the Wednesday session of the grand jury and let them meet for another case on Thursday. Why?
Well, according to Haake’s reporting it was simple logic. According to his own schedule, Trump was due to be in midtown Manhattan one day this week to sit for a deposition in one of the 143,782 pending civil cases against him. Mother Lode! Indict Trump and seal the indictments. Then let Trump show up in midtown for his deposition, give his lawyers the heads-up, unseal and announce the indictments, and whisk Trump up after he finished testifying, and scoot him off to the courthouse and his hearing before anybody has time to react. That sits almost seamlessly with everything we all already know.
To my mind David Pecker was a place keeper. True Bragg wanted him to remind the grand jury that Trump was already criminally aware of the catch-and-kill operations and participated, whatever Costello said. Once he was done, all that was left was their closing argument, and ask for votes of true bills of indictment. Perfect.
But then the plan changed. And not the FBI or NYPD’s plan. On Monday it was made known that Trump’s deposition had been rescheduled, and that Trump wouldn’t be in midtown Manhattan at all this week. And there went the beautiful plan. Bragg basically released the grand jury for the week while everybody regroups.
Look, I buy the whole plan, and it makes perfect sense to me. But it didn’t work. And as I’ve written previously, we’ve had larger turnouts at the Zappos company picnic than the number of protesters that answered Trump’s call. At some time or another, Bragg, the FBI, the Secret Service and the anti terrorism task force are going to have to stop letting Trump set the terms of engagement. Let’s see what next week brings.
Bragg has investigated trump for his involvement in the Karen McDougal catch-and-kill scheme that prevented her from releasing her story of her affair with trump before the election. McDougal allegedly received a payment of $150,000, which came from David Pecker’s company, America Media Inc. Cohen negotiated a deal with AMI to reimburse them for the payment and the money is said to have come from trump’s personal account. The key thing here is that Cohen provided extensive evidence for both Daniel’s and McDougal’s payoffs, including in McDougal’s case a recording of a telephone conversation he had with trump to discuss the deals. So, it doesn’t hang on just Cohen’s or Becker’s testimony, but on hard evidence. Bragg has established a pattern of behavior that the horny orange simian won’t be able to wave off.
A former NY prosecutor speculated that Bragg let the jurors off because of the school spring break so that they could take care of their children. He said such things are done in NY. This train may be on a siding at the moment, but it will make it to its destination.