Weekend thread: What's going on?

Federal indictment against Trump is devastating. GOP politicians have gone silent while some conservatives admit it's very bad. Fears about Judge Aileen Cannon taking the case.

There’s no question that the federal indictment against Trump is devastating for him and that the government has an enormously compelling case. Trump incriminates himself for sharing top-secret classified documents in his own words on a recording. And the indictment shows a blundering, sloppy, and reckless attempt to obstruct the FBI’s investigation. Four of the 37 charges carry 20-year maximum sentences, while others carry five- and 10-year sentences. Even if he’s not convicted of all of them or gets the maximum sentence, Trump could go to prison for many years. Will he?

Before the indictment was unsealed, but after the news broke that he’d be indicted, GOP politicians rushed to defend Trump and attack Joe Biden. But since the unsealing and the highly detailed descriptions and photos of boxes of highly sensitive military documents shuffled all over Mar-a-Lago, many GOP leaders have been silent. And some conservative Trump defenders are now admitting this is disastrous.

But we all remember Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon and her abominable rulings in favor of Trump at the start of this investigation—and her appointing of a special master to slow things down—only to be overruled by the 11th Circuit in a scathing reversal. With news that she will at least initially oversee the proceedings, how dangerous is she to this case?