Trump appears to be spreading false indictment rumors to incite chaos: ex-Garland aide

A legal affairs expert who previously served as an aide to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday suggested that Donald Trump could be behind reports surfacing this week that an indictment against the former president is imminent.

Anthony Coley, who headed Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs under Garland, in a “public service announcement,” suggested that the former president in the past has found that spreading misinformation has served his interests. Coley cited previous reports that turned out to be erroneous in his call for calm.

“Here’s my public service announcement, a reminder, for the day: Trump creates and thrives off of chaos. It’s his playbook. And sometime uninformed people are cited, wrongly, as credible sources,” Coley tweeted.

Coley’s comments followed Wednesday’s blockbuster report from The Independent that the DOJ is readying to ask a grand jury hearing evidence against the former president on obstruction and Espionage Act charges, which could happen as soon as Thursday.

The “Espionage Act” was trending on Twitter Wednesday afternoon after the Independent report was published.

“Remember when a 'senior Justice Department source' told a nat'l outlet that Garland didn’t know the date or time of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug 8th or was asked to approve it? False. Garland rebutted that on-the-record on Aug. 11^th,” Coley said.

“A similar effort to create chaos (and panic, among his faithful) is at play now….the fact of the matter is that only a small group of DOJ officials really know the state-of-play with Smith’s investigations. Everything else – charges, timing, venue – is pure speculation."

At the minimum, Coley suggests taking the latest reports with a grain of salt.

“Let’s all take a breath, and let Smith and team complete their work,” he said.

“We’ll all know when we know. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk <smile> (End)”