The Walls May Be Starting To Close In On Trump

FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE  |  March 3, 2022

The walls may be starting to close in on Donald Trump, even as polls indicate he maintains a tight grip on Republican voters, and GOP officeholders and candidates continue to bend the knee to Trump.

Yesterday in a court filing, the House Jan. 6^. Committee asserted for the first time that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that Trump and some of his associates may have engaged in criminal fraud and obstruction in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

If the Jan. 6 Committee makes a referral to the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation of Trump, while not legally binding, it will increase the pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to open a DOJ Trump criminal investigation.

In another development, the accounting firm for the Trump Organization, in a highly unusual move, suddenly withdrew its support for the annual financial statements it had prepared for the Trump Organization from 2011 to 2020, directing the Trump Organization to notify everyone who received the documents that they could no longer rely on them.

Last week, the two main prosecutors in the criminal investigation of Trump’s finances by the Manhattan District Attorney resigned in protest as the newly elected DA appeared to walk away from the case. However, the DA’s criminal investigation was being conducted in coordination with a civil investigation of Trump’s finances by the New York Attorney General. The AG’s investigation is moving forward and a judge ruled last month that the AG can question Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, under oath in the case.

At the same time, the Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia is investigating possible criminal conduct by Trump in his efforts to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia. A court agreed to a request to impanel a special grand jury for this criminal investigation.

And, the District of Columbia Attorney General is conducting a criminal investigation into Trump’s potential role in the January 6 insurrection.

According to The Guardian, Trump currently is facing 19 legal actions. And, a study issued this week by CREW found that Trump “has been credibly accused of committing at least 48 criminal offenses while he was serving as President of the United States or campaigning for that office.”

To date, Trump has not been indicted on a single criminal offense, but he has a maze of criminal and civil investigations and lawsuits to get through in the coming months and years.

Meanwhile, in a 2024 presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference last weekend, Trump got 59 percent of the vote, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis got 28 percent – a healthy number that must have concerned Trump who believes he created DeSantis.

Clearly, Trump’s hold over GOP voters, officeholders, and candidates currently remains intact, as does his autocratic ways.

But, Trump is facing choppy waters ahead and any indictments or further huge blunders, like his recent support for the murderous Vladimir Putin, could weaken Trump politically.

In American politics, the illusion of power is power. If the illusion dissipates so does the power, and that is what Trump may be facing.

Our fight for democracy and against autocracy is embodied in Trump. The fight goes on.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter here. Or, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.