I don’t think most people understand what an indictment means. As I can tell you from first hand experience, it’s worthless from an evidentiary standpoint. Let me explain the prosecution template that has been completely distorted by shows like Law and Order as John Oliver pointed out in a recent episode.
Prosecution Step One: Before the USA became a “police state“, prosecutions were initiated by a complaint of some sort. A complaint consisted of a citizen complaining to a police officer that something unwanted happened to them or someone they know. The police officer then investigated the complaint and if he found enough evidence that there was “probable cause” to believe that a crime had been committed, he/she arrested the suspect and then informed the prosecutor (often called the district attorney) that he arrested this guy for doing this thing that he thinks violates this law.
Now, since the USA became a police state, prosecution step one has another avenue, it’s called “crime prevention“. That’s where the police go out into the community looking for people who may be committing a crime. It’s un-American but part of our current existence nonetheless…
So for Trump, this first step was started when the people who work at the National Archives informed the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Trump was refusing to comply with the Presidential Records Act. So the DOJ initiated an investigation into their complaint. The DOJ soon found that the National Archive’s complaint was valid and ordered Trump to comply. He did so partially, probably not realizing the serious legal jeopardy he was now in… It’s not surprising that his partial compliance pissed the DOJ off and if Trump had competent lawyers, they would have informed him that partial compliance was a HUGE mistake. But Trump is dumb as a box of rocks and didn’t understand this fundamental change in his legal position. He didn’t understand he was now under criminal investigation.
Criminal Investigation becomes formalized in the form of a Search Warrant. Again, I can tell you from personal experience, search warrants carry with them a strong presumption of guilt. This is because the officer has to file an affidavit – under oath – attesting that he believes that the subject of the search has probably committed a specific crime (or crimes) and that he will probably be able to find evidence of that crime (or crimes) at the place he is requesting the court to allow him to search.
In my case, this initial search warrant was deemed “void ad initio” (which means it was void on its face because the magistrate had no authority to issue the warrant); but, the courts have assumed it was obtained in good faith so there was no need to suppress the fruits of their illegal search. I contested the government’s “good faith” because they lied to the magistrate about the evidence that the NIT Report provided. (As I explained in a previous post)
In Trump’s case, he has no such argument and thus why I believe that his indictment for the charges stated in the search warrant have already been filed and is currently under seal. This is because I know…
Prosecution Step Two: Once they have executed the search warrant and found what they were looking for, the next step is to present their one sided view of the evidence they’ve collected to a grand jury with a one sided narrative. (That’s why there is a saying that a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. It’s because he gets to select the evidence and compose the narrative without any opposition.)
In my case this step was also fatally flawed. They used the NIT Report, that was solely based on a fabricated and falsified MySQL table, to present a false narrative to the grand jury that my IP “accessed” or “attempted to receive” contraband from a server under FBI control on or about November 19, 2012.
Again, in Trump’s case, he has no such argument and he and his lawyers know it. Thus all this nonsense with the special master, that is nothing more than a futile stalling tactic. In the end, the courts will rule (as the Eleventh Circuit has hinted) Trump has no legal claim to any of the documents. That means Trump has no legal defense against the charges listed in the search warrant.
Prosecution Step Three: Trial or Plea Deal. That’s it, those are your options after indictment. Although there is a third, and it’s what I tried in my habeas petitions. There is only one way to get an indictment tossed, you have to prove – by a preponderance of evidence – that the indictment was obtained in bad faith. Trump is hinting that he’ll try this tactic as well, it will eventually fail because his claim, unlike mine, is baseless.
My case was initiated with simple FBI perjury. My proof is this: I have an expert report proving that Tinyboard doesn’t have a visitors table, doesn’t issue session ids to visitors and doesn’t track visitor activity. That means that the FBI fabricated the visitors table, falsified the session ids in it and committed perjury when they told the grand jury that their fabricated table provided probable cause that my IP accessed” or “attempted to receive” contraband from a server under FBI control on or about November 19, 2012.
Trump can make no such argument. So all we have to wait for now is to see what his punishment will be…