Friday Round Up! 8/4/23

The third crime's a charm.

This week has felt like several lifetimes, probably because I was strapped to my dining room chair on standby TV hits for a lot of it. It was all worth it, though, because the big kahuna — The Indictment We’ve All Been Waiting For — finally came down this week. Renato and I discussed the significance of the charges in this week’s podcast, but it’s also worth remembering that they are long overdue: There is reason to believe that but for the January 6 Committee’s hearings, which seemed to spur the Justice Department into action, Trump may have never been directly investigated for his role in January 6. Better late than never, but the delay in getting the ball rolling does now leave Special Counsel Jack Smith with a short runway to bring this case to trial, which, of course, will need to be coordinated with his case on the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, with the impending trial by the Manhattan D.A.’s office, and what appears to be forthcoming charges by the Fulton County DA in Georgia. Renato and I will unpack some of these logistics, as well as potential Trump defenses, next week. For now, here is our initial reaction when the indictment dropped last Tuesday:

Worth reading:

• I don’t have any articles to highlight this week but really the most important thing you can read is the indictment itself. Even if you have been following along quite closely, it is pretty astonishing to see the breadth and depth of the conspiracy to overturn the election in black and white. In case you need a visual to help follow along with all of the moving parts, my handy-dandy Self-Coup Chart (referenced in the podcast) may be helpful (it nicely doubles as a Trump & Co. Criminal Bingo Card as charges keep dropping):

Noteworthy clips from this week:

Upcoming events:

• Zoom Office Hours, Wednesday, August 9 at 12 p.m. EDT. Zoom link will be sent to paid members at 9 a.m.

• Wine & Fries Club Happy Hour with Michael Cohen, Sunday, August 27, 8 p.m. EDT. Zoom link will be sent to Founding Members at 5 p.m.

As a reminder, after next week’s Office Hours we will have a short break in the course until after Labor Day — it’s a great chance to check out some of the previous lessons if you only recently joined. I’ll still send my weekly round ups as well as breaking Indictment Watch posts (fingers crossed for Georgia to drop very soon) so stay tuned!