The Mystery of Indictments

​I've had a bunch of friends calling me to say how disappointed they were by the indictments yesterday from NYC .D.A. And meanwhile, there's been a mixed reaction by lawyers analyzing the indictments on TV, with some saying that this is likely all the indictments there will be, and others staying these were very damaging and likely only the first step.

From a completely non-legal perspective, I think the best indication that the indictments were far more serious  and with deep implications than most people think is the 13-minute meltdown ranting video that Don Jr. put out.  Generally, when a person is relieved by news that could affect you, you don't melt down and rant for 13 minutes and claim that this is what they do in Russian and how the mullahs act towards their enemies in Iran..  But, in fairness, I don't think Don Jr. should ever be used as a barometer for pretty much anything.  Other than meltdown rants, that is.

(Side note:  in his meltdown, he claimed that the amount of Allen Weisselberg's unpaid taxes was just $5000 per year.  It will not be shocking to learn that this is a lie.  If you take that $5,000 a year average over the 15-year period of the indictment, that would work out to $75,000.  In fact, the amount of his unpaid taxes was over $900,000.)

As my friends were in mid-complaint, I said that I was going to let them get it all out of their system, rather than discuss each individual grievance, and to go ahead and just give me a signal when they were done.  At that point, what I then said was --

I have no idea if this was good news or bad news.  I'm not a lawyer.  I'm also not privy to the strategy plans of the prosecutors.  There were only a few things we do know.

We know that the Grand Jury has not been dismissed.  It's not only still sitting, but is sitting for another five months through November.  If the D.A. was finished, he'd probably have let them go.  I don't know for certain that that's true, but it seems reasonable.  In any event, the Grand Jury is still open.

We also know that the NY State Attorney General is investigating Trump and the Trump Organization.  They may find something to indict on -- they may not.  But they haven't rolled up the carpet and said goodbye, we haven't found anything.  They are still investigation and yet to make their findings known.  And it seems reasonable that they will file indictments.  Maybe not.  But in any event, the Attorney General's investigation is still open.

And we know that the NYC D.A. and the state Attorney General are, in fact, working together and coordinating their two investigations.  So, it seems reasonable to think that whatever charges the D.A. makes are done in conjunction with the Attorney General to serve their mutual strategies the best.  Maybe not.  But if not, that would seem to be a really poor way to coordinate your investigations.

I also said that I don't care if people are disappointed by the indictments yesterday.  Because none of use know what the D.A. and Attorney General are actually thinking or planning and what's to come, if anything.  And the only thing that matters is not people's disappointment when not knowing what they can't possibly know, but what actually does happen next, if anything.  And that, we'll have to wait for it.

So, I don't know what will happen next.  And I don't know if these indictments were a first step in a short walk, or a first step in a long journey, or a final step.  But given that the Grand Jury is still open, and given that the Attorney General is still investigation, and given that the D.A. and Attorney General are coordinating their investigations, it seems to me most likely that there is more to come.

It seems likely to Don Jr., too.  But then I gave up caring much about what Don Jr. thinks long ago.

The other question in all of this is why do we pronounced the word "predict" -- pre-dicked?  And we pronounce "indict" -- in-dite?  I think someone screwed up when they got to that one.  Or at least has a lot of explaining to do.