Thread by @PalmerReport

Key point: today's court didn't come from the DOJ. It came from Bannon, who's trying to paint himself as a victim (won't work). This means the DOJ is still not ready to reveal its overall probe, which at this point obviously covers Trump world and almost certainly includes Trump.

This filing reveals that the DOJ has been investigating not just Bannon, but also investigating Bannon's attorney, who happens to represent Giuliani, who's also known to be under investigation. This is far too sprawling not to be a probe of the *entirety* of Trump world.

It also reveals the DOJ has three federal prosecutors assigned to the Bannon case. Just for a contempt case that's already complete? Of course not. Suggests Bannon's entire life is under DOJ investigation, and has been for some time.

The DOJ appeared to be trying to wait to indict Bannon until Trump was out of office, to prevent a pardon. But when Bannon got on a yacht to conspire with a foreign national, it had to pick him up to stop the alleged crime in process. Then Trump pardoned him.

But the notion that the DOJ would have just given up on the overall Bannon case, because one charge was pardoned, is absurd. If anything the DOJ would be even more motivated by the pardon. Every inch of Bannon's life has surely been under DOJ criminal investigation.

It explains why the Bannon indictment for contempt feels like a chapter out of the middle of a book. When the 1/6 committee asked for the indictment, the DOJ had to pluck that out of the overall probe without prematurely revealing the entire criminal case that was being built.

So what is all this leading to? The DOJ does not want us to know, because then everyone in Trump world would know. DOJ loves catching people on perjury and then using it to flip them, which it can't do if everyone in Trump world knows what everyone else has said to the DOJ.

Bannon's court filing today is about playing the sympathy card with the far right, but also putting some secrets about the DOJ probe out there publicly so others in Trump world will know what's coming. But it's being done so weakly, it won't help anyone in Trump world.

Back when the 1/6 committee decided to target Bannon first, we said it was specifically because it knew Bannon would NOT cooperate, and it could make an example out of him by busting him for contempt, thus scaring more skittish witnesses into cooperating.

At the time we based this on major media reports about the Manhattan DA criminally investigating Bannon, meaning Bannon wouldn't want to risk further incriminating himself by cooperating with the committee. Now it appears Bannon was also under DOJ investigation at the time.

So Bannon REALLY had good reason not to cooperate with the 1/6 committee – which it was surely counting on. Since the Bannon showdown, numerous witnesses – from Pence's staff to Kayleigh McEnany have decided to cooperate, to avoid contempt charges. The strategy worked.

Keep in mind the DOJ has its own timetable, and does not care how impatient you're feeling. It doesn't panic when Bannon makes some laughably empty threat on a podcast. It only cares about building an airtight enough case to all but guarantee a conviction.

Bannon is not some genius strategist who's going to somehow magically defeat the DOJ because he made a court filing. Bannon is an overconfident clown who's ended up failing at, or getting ousted from, every project he's ever attempted.

So yeah, Bannon is (obviously) going down. As is much of Trump world. And these kinds of probes are ALWAYS based on busting the underlings to try to force one or more of them to flip on the biggest fish. If any one of Bannon, Rudy, Meadows, etc flips on Trump, Trump goes down.

And if you're yelling "but when?" then you missed the part about the DOJ not caring how impatient you are. We are not constantly 24 hours from total doom, no matter how often the pundits on MSNBC and Twitter insist we are. Indictments will happen when they happen. Who cares when?

As for those who keep insisting the DOJ only has until the midterms to complete its work: the midterms have zero bearing on who controls the DOJ. The pundits who claim otherwise are either clueless morons who know literally nothing, or intentionally misleading you for effect.