Donald Trump and his family had a horrible week amid multiple new developments occurring in two states and Washington, DC.
"A flurry of decisions by the Supreme Court and federal and state investigators has forced Donald Trump and his adult children to defend their conduct on multiple fronts, potentially jeopardizing their futures — or perhaps yet again allowing the former president to escape unscathed," is how The Washington Post described the situation on Friday.
The newspaper noted a devastating filing by New York Attorney General Letitia James laying out evidence of Trump Organization fraud. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected Trump's plea to block records sought by the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
On Thursday, the select committee sought cooperation from Ivanka Trump as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sought a special grand jury for her investigation into Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
READ MORE: Trump fumes as Fulton County investigation heats up: 'I didn’t say anything wrong'
Taken together, the events seem to spell bad news for Trump. But some who have observed him for decades are urging caution. After all, Trump survived two House impeachments — avoiding conviction by the Senate — as well as the investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III into Russian involvement in the 2016 election and several congressional probes of his administration.
Tim O'Brien, author of the 2005 biography TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, thinks he has a simple explanation.
“Every time there is an investigation of Trump, the media becomes invested in [it] being a possible death knell,” O'Brien explained. “Donald Trump has nine lives not because he’s a master dodger, but because it’s hard to prove fraud. It’s worth stepping back and looking at the realities of the legal proceedings and at the bars the prosecutors have to overcome to make a case.”
O'Brien said, “bad behavior doesn’t amount to fraud.”
“It hinges on whether [Letitia James] can prove Trump or the children knew they were doing something wrong and did so anyway,” he said. “Behaving badly is not a crime.”
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