Trump Is One Day Away From Sending the Grand Jury Deciding His Fate Expensive Wine and Chocolates

Donald Trump has spent a large part of this last month viciously attacking Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, seemingly in the hopes of either (1) avoiding being indicted for the 2016 hush money scheme involving Stormy Daniels; or (2) inspiring violence against the prosecutor in the event he is actually criminally charged. On Wednesday, though, he appeared to debut a new strategy: kiss the grand jury’s ass.

Just after 8 a.m., the former president took to his social media account—which he started after Twitter banned him for inciting a riot that left multiple people dead—and wrote: “I HAVE GAINED SUCH RESPECT FOR THIS GRAND JURY, & PERHAPS EVEN THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE. THE EVIDENCE IS SO OVERWHELMING IN MY FAVOR, & SO RIDICULOUSLY BAD FOR THE HIGHLY PARTISAN & HATEFUL DISTRICT ATTORNEY, THAT THE GRAND JURY IS SAYING, HOLD ON, WE ARE NOT A RUBBER STAMP, WHICH MOST GRAND JURIES ARE BRANDED AS BEING, WE ARE NOT GOING TO VOTE AGAINST A PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE OR AGAINST LARGE NUMBERS OF LEGAL SCHOLARS ALL SAYING THERE IS NO CASE HERE. DROP THIS SICK WITCH HUNT, NOW!”

Obviously, the attacks on Bragg—the first Black person to serve as Manhattan’s top prosecutor—are still there. But there’s also the very cringeworthy attempt to flatter and influence the members of the jury, which some people think might not be legal.

Trump, of course, has not yet been charged despite literally claiming earlier this month that he would be arrested on Tuesday of last week, which brought the news cycle into an indictment-watch frenzy.

Meanwhile, recent reports have suggested, for different reasons, that should Trump be indicted, it might not happen until several weeks from now. On Wednesday, Politico noted that the grand jury examining the hush money case isn’t expected to hear evidence “for the next month largely due to a previously scheduled hiatus,” which would “push any indictment of the former president to late April at the earliest.” One day prior, Insider reported that it’s possible the jury has already decided whether or not to charge the ex-president, but the DA’s office may have decided to “slow-walk the post-vote process for days, forestalling the moment when Trump is officially indicted, as is in their discretion and power to do,” according to legal experts.

Like Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis reportedly shuns digital communication

Unlike with Trump, this appears to be less about being a Luddite and more about not creating a paper trail. Per Semafor:

If you’re waiting for a text or email back from Florida gov. Ron DeSantis, don’t hold your breath: The governor, at least in his official capacity, doesn’t text or email, according to two people familiar with his operation…. Sources pointed to Florida’s unusually broad laws allowing the public access to a whole host of information—the Sunshine Law and the Public Records Law—as another possible reason why DeSantis avoids electronic communication. The combined laws grant access to records and detailed information on government proceedings and meetings.

“He is enemy number one for a lot of people,” one source said of DeSantis, adding that the governor had nothing in particular to hide. “I think that’s more of taking a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach.” In fact, when you email with the governor’s official office, a disclaimer alluding to the law can often be found at the bottom of emails: “Please note that under Florida law correspondence sent to the Governor’s Office, which is not confidential or exempt pursuant to chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes, is a public record made available upon request.”