There’s no shortage of speculation as to who the next target of Mueller’s special counsel probe it will be that gets indicted, especially given the number of people who seemingly know that their time is coming — Don Junior has been expecting his own arrest since late last year, and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, who was instrumental in passing back and forth information between Roger Stone and WikiLeaks, knows that he’ll be on the block soon as well.
But speculation aside, it’s definitely just about time for the next arrest. How do we know?
In order for law enforcement to effect an arrest on a suspected or known criminal who isn’t actually in the process of committing a crime in the moment they’re arrested, the final step is to obtain a warrant for that person’s arrest — in federal cases with a grand jury, that’s the indictment.
The Thursday before Roger Stone’s arrest — he was taken on a Friday — the special counsel filed the indictment allowing the FBI to do so in what’s called a “sealed order” in federal court. The “sealed” part is because there are no names, just case numbers, and for high-profile cases, those numbers mean nothing to anyone without direct knowledge of the proceedings. That’s done so as to avoid tipping prosecutors’ hands and allowing defendants to flee, destroy evidence, or otherwise screw things up for the prosecution.
But the pattern has been the same for years and years: File the sealed indictment(s), prepare for the execution of the warrant, and effect the arrest.
Well, guess whose office just filed four new sealed indictments:
Of note is the fact that, in sets of two, the case numbers are sequential. We may not know who these indictments are pointing at, but that’s a pretty good indicator that they’re multiple charges against one or two individuals.
And while we’re sitting here smiling and puzzling over just who the poor saps are in Mueller’s sights now, we might as well take a moment to reflect on another major occurrence in the same past few days since those indictments were filed: Don Junior’s testimony transcripts from his time before Congress — you know, the ones in which literally everyone knows he committed perjury — were just officially handed over to Robert Mueller’s office by the House of Representatives, just before these filings.
Some indicators are just as good as others, too: Donald Trump has more than a hundred times, including dozens pertaining directly to the Russia investigation, since these indictments were filed. Looks like somebody’s pretty nervous about who might be next.
Featured image via screen capture
