It was just a matter of time before the January 6th committee did what it was always going to do. Namely, announce criminal referrals in relation to the unrest at the Capitol following the 2020 election.

On Tuesday, Chairman Bennie Thompson made it official, telling reporters that referrals were on the way and would be submitted as a separate document from the committee’s report.

House January 6 committee has decided to make criminal referrals, chairman says https://t.co/esCgI5qvlk

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) December 6, 2022

Thompson didn’t announce exactly who the criminal referrals will target, but it’s not exactly a secret that Donald Trump is in the crosshairs. As the CNN article notes, the committee’s members have been in wide agreement that they feel the former president committed a crime. The lack of evidence to support such a contention hasn’t stopped them before and I see no reason to believe it’ll stop them now.

In short, Donald Trump is trouble, and that becomes clear when you take a step back and take a look at all the moving parts. Yes, the January 6th committee is a cog in all this, but it’s not the only one. The timing of the DOJ’s new special counsel targeting Trump isn’t a coincidence, and sure enough, on the same day Cheney and company announced criminal referrals were coming, here’s what the DOJ was working on.

BREAKING: DOJ special counsel subpoenas officials in several states, asking for communications with or involving former President Donald Trump, campaign aides and allies involved in his efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election. https://t.co/X3mt3xX48u

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 6, 2022

A revival of New York State’s criminal case against Trump also happened in the last month. Again, none of these things are happening separately from one another. It’s all part of a slow-moving operation to take down the former president once and for all. The January 6th committee is mostly theater, but the DOJ is playing off that theater to build its case and turn public opinion.

There’s only one outcome here: Donald Trump is going to be indicted.

And while I’ve often said that would be stupid as a matter of law, at the end of the day, nothing I or anyone else has to say really matters. The DOJ is hellbent on finishing what it started way back in 2016, and no amount of calling them corrupt is going to change that.

That leads me to my last point. A lot of people on the right, myself included, have begun the debate on who should be the Republican nominee in 2024. The typical points of tension revolve around whether Donald Trump has what it takes to put together a winning coalition. But amidst the various factions yelling at each other about matchup hypotheticals, the elephant in the room is being ignored: Donald Trump is going to be indicted, and there is no chance a DC jury doesn’t convict him of whatever the DOJ puts in front of them.

The only question left in my mind is whether the government officials behind that drive are going to time things so that Trump is already the nominee when he’s indicted, essentially leaving Republicans without a candidate for the 2024 election. The trap is being baited, and that’s going to leave some tough decisions ahead for the GOP.