Donald Trump's veiled warning about any move to indict him

Donald Trump is expert at giving ominous warnings while claiming he is doing no such thing. In a television interview the former president said when asked if he faced indictment for keeping classified documents at his home in Florida that he had done nothing wrong and that an indictment was therefore pointless and unnecessary. But then he added that he didn't think the American people would accept him being indicted and there would be "problems" if he was. Understandably the interviewer asked him if people might think from that remark that he was inciting the public to violence. Trump denied it. "That's not inciting, I'm just saying what my opinion is," he said. All very clever but he is probably right. Certainly none of his loyal band of supporters would back their beloved former president being indicted. But what steps they might take to make their views clear was not touched on by Trump. He was just expressing an opinion. No lawyer, whatever his political views, could make a case for incitement to violence based on that casual Trump remark. Nevertheless, Trump is no fool and he knows that people on his side will take his words to heart. If the Justice Department decides that there is sufficient evidence to charge Trump under the Espionage Act for hoarding classified documents, it is very likely that there will be a huge backlash from loyalists. Trump knows that and the Justice Department and Attorney General know that. So do they risk an indictment and face the potential consequences up and down the country, or do they play safe and drop the idea of indicting him? It should be a purely legal decision but it is far more likely that it will be tinged, if not, swallowed up by politics.