Trump schooled over claims that Jack Smith delayed indictments to interfere with election

Former President Donald Trump is now trying to claim that the timing of the four criminal indictments against him is proof of their illegitimacy. “REMEMBER, CROOKED JOE BIDEN AND HIS RADICAL LEFT THUGS WAITED THREE YEARS TO BRING THESE INDICTMENTS & LAWSUITS AGAINST ME, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY CAMPAIGN!” he wrote on Truth Social this week.

Unfortunately for Trump, wrote Aaron Blake for The Washington Post on Tuesday, this argument falls flat when you consider the actual timeline, rather than the version of it Trump is putting forward.

For one thing, Blake noted, the "three years ago" demand would have put an indictment during the 2020 election — before either the removal of classified documents to Mar-a-Lago or the plot to overturn the vote.

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Even if we accept Trump was speaking hyperbolically, though, and simply meant why wasn't he indicted in 2021 right around when the conduct occurred, that misinterprets both what the public knew about his conduct and what investigators knew.

"These things take time, and we’ve seen that play out," wrote Blake. "Trump allegedly left office with classified documents in late January 2021. But the charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in federal court in Florida are not focused on merely possessing them. Rather, they are focused on his failure to return them when authorities came calling, along with alleged efforts to obstruct that process."

As for the other cases, wrote Blake, even the business fraud case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, that too took a large amount of time investigating the behavior — and all of this was compounded by the scrupulousness with which prosecutors built up their case to avoid it looking political, and the fact that Trump himself chose to time his campaign announcements early to try to give himself a legal shield.

Taken all together, Blake concluded, "It’s surely inconvenient for Trump that these prosecutions are underway in the final 12 months before an election" — but on the other hand, "It’s hardly surprising given the time frames involved. And it’s not clear what actually plausible timing would have met with his approval."