The day after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced that the grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump and 18 of his co-conspirators on fraud and racketeering charges over their attempts to stop Georgia from certifying the 2020 election results, Trump took to Truth Social to announce that he would be holding a press conference at Bedminster on August 21 where he would present a "large, complex, detailed, but irrefutable" report “proving” that voter fraud took place in Georgia.
As he generally does, Trump offered big promises about this report, claiming that once the contents are revealed, the charges against him will be dropped, he will be exonerated, and Mexico will pay his legal fees.
Okay, I made that last part up.
And much like the promised release of the "Kraken,” Trump's promised press conference sputtered out like a wet fart.
Thursday morning, ABC News reported that sources in the Trump camp said that the former president's exasperated legal team was advising him to cancel Monday's promised unveiling over concerns that it will "only complicate his legal problems."
You think?!
If I had to guess, I'd say the "CONCLUSIVE Report," if it does exist, is a rehash of all of the already-debunked claims Trump made after the 2020 election.
You can understand why his lawyers want to keep Kraken 2.0 under wraps. And it appears they succeeded.
Yesterday, Trump took to Truth Social to announce that he wouldn't release Kraken 2.0 after all.
Trump explained:
Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta. Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!
Ah, okay. So his lawyers want to include his evidence in legal filings.
That's certainly one way to spin it.
Only Trump could take concern that this "evidence" would make his legal problems worse and spin it into "Hey, let's put this report in formal legal filings!"
It isn't that the press conference "is no longer necessary." It's that the press conference would have been yet another in a long line of self-inflicted wounds that his beleaguered attorneys want to prevent.
Having read all 98 pages of that indictment, I can tell you that there are plenty of problems with the case that Trump's legal team can focus on without the elusive Kraken inking up the water with the same ridiculous election fraud claims that got Trump in this mess in the first place.
As I said after Trump's two federal indictments, take the time to read the Fulton County indictment yourself.
Reading the indictment from Fulton County gave me an unexpected appreciation for special counsel Jack Smith. His indictments are logical, clear, and miles easier to read than this one from Fani Willis.
It'll be an eye-aching slog, but read it yourself.
There are 41 counts against the 19 defendants, 13 of which are against Trump.
And while not all 19 defendants face all 41 counts, every one of them is getting charged under the state's RICO Act.
To my untrained eye, the racketeering charge appears a wee bit forced – like Willis is trying to cram square evidence into a round charge.
Without the racketeering charge, any convictions in this case will likely come with very little jail time.
That leads me to suspect that Willis decided to overreach and add the RICO charge solely because a conviction for racketeering carries a prison sentence of 5 to 20 years.
And if, by some miracle, the RICO charge doesn't get tossed out before the case goes to trial, Trump's lawyers will have enough on their plates without making their lives harder by introducing his "CONCLUSIVE Report" in legal filings.
So, no. I don't believe his lawyers convinced him to cancel Monday's grand unveiling so they could use the "evidence" at trial. That’s just something Trump is telling his most devoted fans to keep them believing his lies about election fraud.
The only reason Trump’s lawyers talked him out of that press conference is to prevent the fictitious Kraken from strangling their client and dragging him into the depths.