Clearly most-hot this noon Thursday here in California’s Central Valley — another notch in the ever-tightening belt of climate change upon us with a triple-digit episode once again that’s fully mashed into the same scenario for a huge, giant chunk of the whole world.
Obviously ominous the weather situation.
Also, too, obviously the fate of the asshole-criminal T-Rump in getting slapped with another indictment (or two) for his inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, combined maybe with all the outlying tentacles of illegal activity around keeping the presidency despite losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
This morning the possible prison plot thickened: ‘Lawyers for former President Donald Trump met Thursday morning with special counsel Jack Smith’s team as a potential indictment of the former president looms, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.‘
Reportedly, T-Rump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche met with Smith’s team, while at the same time, the grand jury gathered again at the federal courthouse in downtown Washington. Supposedly, a defense lawyer/prosecutor get-together is fairly common in criminal cases just prior to an indictment.
All in a continuing workplace: ‘Smith and his team have been examining efforts by Trump and his allies to block Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, including the events that led up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Investigators have looked at ads and email messages that sought to fundraise off false claims of election fraud, as well as the decision by Republican electors in some states won by Biden to send signed statements purporting to affirm Trump as the victor.‘
Hopefully, T-Rump and his legal team will experience a bit of felony-charged whiplash:
“It is our understanding that these lawyers have been told to expect an indictment against former President Trump related to the elections investigation possibly as soon as today” pic.twitter.com/14HJL7vZsK
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 27, 2023
Newshound encampment keeping watch:
The normal buzz of activity at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington has continued, even as dozens of reporters near the grand jury room await the potential indictment.
Reporters spotted the grand jurors entering the courthouse earlier Thursday. The grand jury typically meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, although they were not seen Tuesday earlier this week.
Various media organizations have also assembled satellite trucks outside the courthouse, nestled between the White House and the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue, in preparation for the high-stakes proceedings.
It’s unclear what specific charges Trump will face, though reporting on the target letter suggests he could face charges for conspiring to deprive citizens the “free exercise” of constitutional rights like voting.
If convicted, offenders face a fine or up to 10 years in prison.
Despite T-Rump’s response on his way-highly hypocritical, back-ass-backward Truth Social platform — ‘“an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country “‘ — there are explosives in the fire:
The grand jury is meeting while Jack Smith’s team is sitting down with Trump’s lawyers: Trump’s Lawyers Meet With Prosecutors as Election Interference Charges Loom – The New York Times https://t.co/ChpWi8zZ97
— Frank Figliuzzi (@FrankFigliuzzi1) July 27, 2023
Some background via The New York Times:
The former president’s legal team — including Todd Blanche and a newly hired lawyer, John Lauro — has been on high alert since last week, when prosecutors working for the special counsel sent Mr. Trump a so-called target letter in the election interference case. It was the clearest signal that charges could be coming.
The letter described three potential counts that Mr. Trump could face: conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding and a Reconstruction-era civil rights charge that makes it a crime to threaten or intimidate anyone in the “free exercise or enjoyment” of any right or privilege provided by the Constitution or by federal law.
Another team of lawyers working at the time for Mr. Trump had a similar meeting with officials at the Justice Department last month, days before prosecutors led by Mr. Smith filed an indictment in Florida charging the former president with illegally holding onto 31 highly sensitive classified documents after leaving the White House.
The indictment in the Florida case, which is set to go to trial in May, also accused Mr. Trump of conspiring with one of his personal aides, Walt Nauta, to obstruct the government’s repeated attempts to retrieve the classified documents.
If Mr. Trump is charged in connection with his efforts to reverse his election loss, it would be an extraordinary moment in which a former president — and current presidential candidate — stood accused of using the powers of his own government to remain in office against the will of the voters.
Mr. Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has already been charged not only in the classified documents case but also by the Manhattan district attorney, who has accused him of dozens of felonies related to hush money payments made to a porn actress in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump also faces scrutiny from the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., who is investigating his efforts to bend the results of the 2020 election in that state in his favor.
And now we wait and really, really hope this is the T-Rump immediate future’s theme music:
Indicted today, or not, yet here we are once again…
(Illustration out front: ‘President Trump,’ by Jonathan Bass, found here.)