Here’s the part where Donald Trump takes himself down

Throughout the ongoing criminal probes against Donald Trump, there have been scaredy cats who have said things to the effect of “Oh no, Trump is going to obstruct the case, or tamper with witnesses, or he’ll just lie about everything, and he’s going to get away with it all!” I’ve long tried to explain that nothing works this way, and that in fact things work the opposite way.

Now that Trump has been indicted, hopefully it’ll be enough to get some of the more skittish folks on our side to accept that Trump hasn’t been “getting away” with any of this stuff. The DOJ didn’t just indict Trump under the Espionage Act. It also (according to the media) indicted him for obstruction of justice and making false statements to investigators. Trump’s own attorney claimed on TV on Thursday night that Trump was also indicted for witness tampering.

In other words, not only did Trump’s obstruction and tampering antics not help him, they destroyed him. Of the four areas the DOJ is known to have indicted Trump in his classified documents scandal, three of them were for his antics after the fact. And while it takes a lot to get a conviction at trial on a charge as complex as espionage, it’s quite easy to get convictions on things like obstruction, tampering, and making false statements.

So even if the Espionage Act charges fall through at trial (they won’t, but even if they do), Trump will still go to federal prison for lying, tampering, and obstruction. It’s how the DOJ always tends to construct these kinds of cases. The DOJ is hoping a criminal target will try to pull this kind of stuff while they’re watching, because it increases the odds of conviction.

All this time Donald Trump hasn’t been “getting away” with anything. Yes, he’s tried to obstruct justice. Yes, he’s tried to tamper with witnesses. Yes, he’s tried to evade justice by illegally lying to federal investigators. And none of that was ever going to help him. It was only going to help send him to prison. All this time Trump has merely been digging his own legal grave, and now everyone can see it.