Government

On Trump's Indictment: An Open Letter To The FBI

Prosecutors, the courts, and all things remotely related to the judicial system are about to come under siege.

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(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Dear FBI:

I know you were somehow caught flatfooted on January 6. For some reason, I knew there was going to be trouble on that day, but you didn’t. I figured I’d write you this letter because I again see trouble coming, and I just want to be sure that you don’t miss it.

Donald Trump is likely to be indicted somewhere this summer or fall. He might be indicted in New York; he might be indicted in the District of Columbia; he might be indicted in Georgia. But it’s pretty darned likely that an indictment is coming. Assume, for the sake of argument, that the indictment is handed down in New York.

Donald Trump will immediately be at the most risk that he’s ever faced in his life.

You’ve seen what Trump has done when he’s at a little risk — when he might be impeached or he might lose an election. Frankly, those threats were small potatoes; the risk was simply being thrown out of office. What do you think Trump is going to do when he’s at risk of being thrown in jail?

Prosecutors, the courts, and all things remotely related to the judicial system are about to come under siege.

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Trump has been deplatformed by many social media sites. And I assume that the judge overseeing the criminal proceeding will be intelligent enough to impose a gag order on Trump. That will help a little.

But Trump has an awful lot of loyalists in high places. A mere gag order will probably not be enough to stop the siege. I’m certain people who are close to Trump, and surely some members of the public, and surely some members of the House of Representatives, and perhaps some senators, and perhaps some news networks, are about to launch an attack the likes of which we haven’t seen before.

We’re about to hear that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is like the mob in Salem but limiting its hunt to a single Republican warlock. We’re about to hear that the individual prosecutors assigned to Trump’s case are as evil as the day is long. We’re about to hear that the judge hearing the case is corrupt. We’re about to hear that the entire judicial system can’t be trusted. At that point, my imagination runs out, but my imagination has already proven too limited for past events.

So, FBI, imagine more. Don’t be stupid: You must assign a security detail to Cy Vance and whoever succeeds him as the Manhattan District Attorney. You must assign security details to the individual prosecutors who are handling the case against Trump. You must assign a security detail to the Manhattan District Attorneys’ office itself. You must assign a security detail to the judge.  You must assign a security detail to the courthouse.

The people who are ultimately selected as jurors in the criminal case must remain anonymous, and those folks might nonetheless need extra security.

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You’re in charge of domestic security — and I’m not — but you should think about this more broadly. Will courthouses across American become targets, simply because they’re all part of a corrupt scheme? Judges? Prosecutors’ offices?

I don’t know, but I’m worried. You’re the specialist in this kind of stuff. Be smart.

You weren’t prepared for the recent assault on the legislative branch of government.

That was the warm-up act: Trump was threatened only with losing an election.

This is now the main show: Trump will be threatened with imprisonment.  He’s about to get serious. There’s about to be a frontal assault on the judicial system.

Get ready now.

You can’t see you didn’t see it coming.  I told you so.

Very truly yours,

Mark

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

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