Jack Smith

Former President Donald Trump spent the hours before his expected arraignment on criminal charges ranting that the special prosecutor investigating him for storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home be prosecuted himself.

"Special 'Prosecutor' Jack Smith ... leaked massive amounts of information to The Washington ComPost," he said on his Truth Social platform shortly before midnight Monday.

Less than half an hour after Yahoo! News Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isakoff revealed on Monday that all thirty-four indictments filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against former President Donald Trump for falsifying business records are Class E felonies, Trump threw a tantrum on his Truth Social app.

Once Trump turns himself in on Tuesday, Isakoff learned from a source "who has been briefed on the procedures" that "a New York City police arrest report summarizing the charges against Trump will then be prepared and entered into the court system before he is led into a courtroom to be formally arraigned on the charges, none of which are misdemeanors."

Attorney General Merrick Garland has faced tough criticism over his deliberate approach to investigating former President Donald Trump.

The American Prospect’s Ryan Cooper put it this way: “The real reason Trump hasn’t been indicted for his major crimes is that the people in charge of that decision — Attorney General Merrick Garland, above all — are all part of the culture of elite impunity that produced Trump in the first place.”

Bombshell revelations claiming former President Donald Trump was showing classified documents to donors at his Mar-a-Lago home could be what brings him down, former FBI agent and Donald Trump foe Peter Strzok said Monday.

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, he cited a Sunday Washington Post article that claimed the Justice Department had obtained new evidence that proves obstructions of justice in the classified case.

The indictment of former President Donald Trump over allegations of a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels could go beyond misdemeanor book-cooking or a possible campaign finance issue, argued former assistant special Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman on CNN Monday — the case could also involve tax fraud.

"You tweeted that, quote, 'If former President Richard Nixon had been held accountable for his actions arising out of the Watergate investigation, no one now would be saying an indictment of Trump is unprecedented,'" said anchor Jake Tapper. "Given what we know about these allegations of business fraud against Trump, presuming that our understanding of the case, that it is the combination of the business fraud with the alleged campaign finance violations, do you think this particular indictment is as serious as what Nixon might have faced before Gerald Ford pardoned him?"

The investigation into former President Donald Trump's handling of top-secret government documents is heating up, as Fox News' Bret Baier is reporting that special counsel Jack Smith has now subpoenaed members of Trump's Secret Service entourage.

"FOX News is told multiple U.S. Secret Service agents connected to Former President Donald Trump have been subpoenaed & are expected to testify before the D.C. grand jury likely on Friday," Baier reports. "The grand jury appearances are related to the Special Counsel Jack Smith probe into the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago."

As he leaps with both feet into his run for the Republican party's 2024 presidential nomination, Donald Trump plans to more tightly embrace the Jan. 6 insurrection and the rioters and put his primary opponents on the spot to either join him in his celebration or face the wrath of his ardent fans, reports the Daily Beast.

With the shadow of multiple investigations hanging over him, including one by special counsel Jack Smith about his part in inciting the Capitol riot, the former president is leaning harder into using the attack on the Capitol to keep his base fired up.

The Washington Post reported Sunday afternoon that more evidence might have become available to prove obstructions of justice for the theft of the government documents taken back to Mar-a-Lago.

Trump refused to turn the documents over for nearly a year when the Justice Department and FBI got involved. The FBI was then given an envelope with additional documents, but that still wasn't everything. Ultimately, the DOJ got a search warrant and went to Mar-a-Lago to get the documents.

As much as former President Donald Trump is trying to claim he is a victim of political persecution following his indictment in New York, it was his own Justice Department officials, under his own administration — along with the politically evenly divided Federal Election Commission at the time — who first helped lay out the evidence his $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels was a crime, argued former Solicitor General Neal Katyal on MSNBC's "The ReidOut" on Friday.

"Pecker entered a nonprosecution agreement in which he admitted the payment had been made in order to help Trump's campaign — that's David Pecker," said anchor Joy Reid. "He testified twice before this grand jury. Does that say to you that [Trump attorney Joe] Tacopina might be trying to make it seem innocuous when it's really part of that kind of scheme?"

Now that former President Donald Trump is being charged in New York in connection to a $130,000 hush payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, much of the case will rest on testimony from Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen — and Trump's defense will likely try to discredit him, arguing he's unreliable because he served time for lying to Congress.

But one cold, hard piece of evidence could still back Cohen up, argued former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC Friday: a tape recording of Trump talking to Cohen about the payments, during which Trump suggested they "pay with cash."

With the possibility that Donald Trump's Manhattan grand jury indictment could be followed by several others before the year is out, Vice's Greg Walters suggested the former president could be so caught up with strategy sessions with his lawyers, depositions and court appearances that they could create havoc with scheduling campaign appearances.

In fact, he noted, given Trump's penchant for excessive motions and appeals, his cases "might even stretch well past the Nov. 5, 2024 election."