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GOP aides on Capitol Hill and former strategists said they do not have insider knowledge about an indictment on Trump, but they claim that a deadline to indict the former president is quickly approaching and Garland is facing heat from Democrats to act fast. However, indicting Trump could have negative consequences for Democrats, some aides suggested.
"[An indictment] could actually end up helping the [former] president politically," an anonymous Republican aide told the Hill. "People have been talking about splintering support and dampening enthusiasm among Republican voters for him. An indictment could actually galvanize and reunify Republicans around him."
The experts added that indicting Trump should come sooner rather than later because it would limit claims that the legal action is politically motivated in an effort to interfere with the 2024 presidential election. Trump has not announced a bid for the White House in 2024, but he has teased the possibility.
"I think that the department will strive to bring an indictment as soon as it can consistent with other constraints, in order to at least minimize the 'legs' on the inevitable barrage of charges it will face that by indicting the former president it is interfering with an upcoming presidential election," former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Robbins told the outlet. "The DOJ will face a storm of such criticism whenever it acts, but doing so as soon as possible at least provides some defense, however limited, against that inevitable criticism."
The indictments would stem from either the FBI raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort over the summer or the allegations that he incited the protest at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. Robbins said he believes the raid is the strongest case against Trump, as prosecutors can claim he violated the Espionage Act when taking top secret documents from the White House to his Florida home.
Comment: They don't even know what they're indicting him for! As long as it's something!
"I think that the Espionage Act violations are relatively straightforward, even self-evident, and that the Department likely already has substantial evidence of obstruction of justice," Robbins said.
Garland has not given any indication that he will prosecute Trump, but he did reveal that he approved the raid on Mar-a-Lago in August, saying, "Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor."
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