Many people were surprised by the news, since Smith already is pursuing criminal charges in Florida on the mishandling of classified documents and the likely Jan. 6 allegations are far more tenuous legally. However, the second indictment may have one irresistible element: It could be tried in Washington.

There are obvious reasons why Mr. Smith would want to go to Washington in this instance. Trump would face what is, for him, arguably the worst jury pool in the country. Trump lost the 2020 presidential vote in the District of Columbia, receiving a mere 5.4% of the vote. That means finding a Trump supporter in the district’s jury pool is only slightly more likely than finding a snow leopard. …

There also is the possibility that, despite the usual pattern of target letters leading to indictments, Smith could be doing his due diligence in seeking Trump’s appearance before a grand jury before closing out the case. Trump would be certifiably insane to take Smith up on such an offer. Yet the widespread expectation now is that Smith will indict Trump if there is any possible basis on which to do so in Washington.

[I’d withhold any conclusions until we see an indictment — IF we see one at all. The possibility that Turley discusses here was missed by many media analysts, but it does exist. Andrew McCarthy has similar skepticism about potential charges in this phase of the investigation too, which is behind the NRO paywall. I may write about this on the main blog later today, too. This may be a Smithmas. — Ed]