In this episode of “The Never-Ending Story of the 2020 Presidential Election — Jan. 6 Edition”…

As we reported on July 18, former President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he had received a “target letter” related to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 criminal investigation.

As a refresher, Attorney General Merrick Garland tasked Smith with overseeing two investigations into Trump: one into his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election, including the lead-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot, and the other into the former president’s retention of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

Here’s a truncated version of Trump’s lengthy response to the letter, which I include without comment:

WOW! On Sunday night, while I was with my family, having just arrived from the Turning Point event in Florida, where I won the Straw Poll against all other Republican candidates with 85.7%, with all polls showing me leading in the Republican primary by very substantial numbers, almost everyone predicting that I will be the Republican nominee for President, and as I am leading Democrat Joe Biden in the polls by a lot, HORRIFYING NEWS for our Country was given to me by my attorneys.

Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.

[…]

Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before, or even close. They illegally spied on my Campaign, attacked me with a totally Fake “Dossier” that was funded by Hillary Clinton’s Campaign and the DNC, Impeached me twice (I won!), they failed on the Mueller Witch Hunt (No Collusion!), they failed on the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the 51 “Intelligence” Agents fraud, the FBI/Twitter files, the DOJ/Facebook censorship, and every other scam imaginable.

[…]

THIS WITCH HUNT IS ALL ABOUT ELECTION INTERFERENCE AND A COMPLETE AND TOTAL POLITICAL WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT! It is a very sad and dark period for our Nation!

In an interview after he received the target letter, Trump was asked if he was concerned about the consequences if he’s found guilty and sentenced to prison.

Host:

Is it something that concerns you of, you know, of the people making sure that they don’t go out of their right mind if something like that happens, because I know what I’m thinking of could happen if that, for example, they do say — Jack Smith says, ‘Okay, I’m going to put Donald Trump in jail?

A loaded question, or was it fair? Here was Trump’s response:

I think it’s a very dangerous thing to talk about, because we do have a tremendously passionate group of voters, and I mean, maybe, you know, maybe 100, 150 — I’ve never seen anything like it. Much more passion than they had in 2020 and much more passion than they had in 2016. I think, uh, it would be very dangerous.

I’ll leave the interpretation to the reader.

Meanwhile, over at MSNBC, on Wednesday, the Trump haters gleefully gloated over the recent developments, with the outlet’s Alicia Menendez subbing for Stage 4 Trump Derangement Syndrome riddled Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House.

Menendez kicked off the Trump-smearing segment by “parroting Wallace’s pet description” of Trump as:

The disgraced, twice-impeached, twice-indicted, legally liable for sexual assault, ex-president.

The complete lack of self-awareness of rabid Trump loathers and their inability to see through the transparent bias of the bilge they spew, which of course, says more about them than about the targets of their bilge, never fails to amuse me.

Menendez continued to dive into the sewer even deeper.

As we come on the air, we are tracking a fascinating split screen. On the one hand, the disgraced, twice-impeached, twice-indicted, legally liable for sexual assault, ex-presidentraging on Truth Social and whining about the possibility of more indictments during his town hall with Sean Hannity.

On the other, special counsel Jack Smith, who by all accounts is calmly carrying on. Each passing hour, moving closer to potentially indicting Donald Trump again. This time over efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Just today Jack Smith was spotted at a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., where a federal grand jury was meeting.

And although Trump has no plans to travel to Washington this week to testify before the special counsel, William Russell, a former White House aide of Trump’s who works for his 2024 presidential campaign, will testify to the grand jury tomorrow.

Ah, but Trump wasn’t just “whining” [sarc], as we’ll soon see.

Menendez continued ad nauseam. Here’s a bit more of her melodramatic screech fest:

Now, as Donald Trump squirms and sweats, waiting for the special counsel’s next move, we’re getting new insight into what Jack Smith may have up his sleeve. NBC News has now confirmed that the target letter Donald Trump received from Jack Smith, informing him he that is the target of a federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, spells out in black and white, three federal statutes related to the deprivation of rights, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and tampering with a witness.

And those federal statutes are not for the faint of heart. As the New York Times reports, the possibilities are chilling. Conspiring to defraud the U.S., for example, is quote, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Then, there’s a conspiracy to submit false electors to Congress, which makes false statements a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

There have also been, quote, signs that prosecutors have explored potential charges involving wire or mail fraud related to Mr. Trump’s fundraising efforts in the name of overturning the election results. It’s worth noting that wire fraud could be punishable by 20 years in prison.

Yeah, that’s enough of that. You can watch the whole schtick in the above video if you choose, so let’s cut to Menendez’s faux dramatic close.

Now, we don’t know yet how this is all going to turn out, whether Trump will be indicted again, when it will happen, or exactly what the charges will be. But for now, hour by hour, the plot thickens.

While Menendez’s last observation is correct in the sense that no one knows how the criminal investigation is going to end, whether Trump will indeed be indicted, or much less whether the former president with be convicted and sent to federal prison, the gleefulness with which TDS-riddled haters spew their bilge is a sorry sight to behold — yet oddly amusing.

The Bottom Line

Regardless of the manner in which Trump was asked if he has any concerns about the potential reaction of the “passionate” supporters he described, and regardless of his response, the question is valid.

I’ll just leave it there. For now.