Today would be a good day for New York to indict Donald Trump
We have no specific reason to expect this will happen, but today (or tomorrow or any day soon) would be a good day for that New York grand jury to go ahead and indict Donald Trump on state charges, even if they can’t arrest him quite yet. The more Trump is forced to play defense during the transition, the less he can play offense.
If you’re new here and you’re asking “what grand jury,” recall that the Trump tax return court battle was the result of a New York grand jury subpoenaing his taxes. They’re clearly in the process of criminally indicting him.
Whether the grand jury has his taxes yet or not, it already reportedly has evidence from Michael Cohen and other sources. New York could easily indict Trump now, then hit him with a superseding indictment on the other stuff later.
The question isn’t whether New York will indict Trump, it’s when – and that part is anyone’s guess. It’s up to the prosecutors overseeing the case. Grand jury proceedings are mostly secret, so no real clues have emerged.
To be clear, Bill Barr and the DOJ have nothing to do with any state level criminal charges that New York will bring, and therefore Barr has literally no ability to interfere. It’s just not a thing. Nor could Trump pardon himself on any state charges. Trump has no magic wand for getting out of state charges. The only person who could pardon him: Governor Andrew Cuomo, which obviously isn’t happening.
We can’t assume New York is just going to swoop in and indict Trump during the transition period and save the day. We have to keep fighting Trump each day, beating back his petty antics. But now that he’s lost, we suspect that a number of buzzards will begin circling very soon.
