The DOJ’s seven criminal charges against Donald Trump have been revealed, and let’s just say that they’re as ugly as we were expecting. There’s the “willful retention of documents” under the Espionage Act, as expected. There’s also making “false statements” to investigators, which is a great tack-on charge with very high odds of conviction, in case the main charge falls through. Then there’s this charge: “conspiracy to obstruct.”
By legal definition, a conspiracy involves two or more people. For Trump to be indicted for “conspiracy to obstruct,” it means that he and others are accused of participating in this criminal conspiracy. In other words, there’s another shoe dropping here. This could mean that Trump’s underlings are also being indicted for “conspiracy to obstruct.” Or it could mean that those who have cut cooperation deals or immunity deals are the co-conspirators. But there’s clearly more coming here.
In any case, remember that today’s charges are just in the DOJ classified documents case. We’re still waiting to see what charges the DOJ brings against Donald Trump in Jack Smith’s separate January 6th probe, wire fraud, and so on. This is just the beginning.
What’s important is that today’s charges start the clock for Donald Trump’s federal criminal trial (or his first federal criminal trial, if it doesn’t all get folded into one trial). Jack Smith and the DOJ no doubt chose this timing on purpose, to make sure they had plenty of time to get the trial, conviction, and sentencing out of the way, well before the 2024 election. But let’s remember that more DOJ charges against Trump are almost surely coming down the road.
