Former President Donald Trump was meeting with his top political advisers in the office near his poolside cottage at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, when his phone rang around seven p.m.
On the line, according to two people with knowledge of the call, was one of his lawyers, informing him that he had been charged for the second time in less than three months.
Former President Donald Trump enters the stage during a rally of Georgia's Republican candidates. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
Unlike the first indictment — in Manhattan state court in connection with allegations that he had paid money for his silence to a porn actress during the 2016 election — the current charges were federal and stemmed from his conduct just before he left office and for about 18 months afterward.
Trump, always compartmentalized, immediately moved on to a political reaction.
At 19:21 p.m., he did what he used to do so often when he was president:
He personally programmed the videographs of all the news channels in the country.
He broke the news of his own accusation by drafting and sending a three-part statement through his social network, Truth Social, which soon interrupted the late-night shows of Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.
The former president issued a harangue against the Biden administration, but among his attacks on Democrats were pertinent details:
not only that he had been charged, but also that he had been summoned to appear in a Miami court on Tuesday afternoon.
A study van was taken to Bedminster so that one of his lawyers could appear on television.
Another Trump lawyer, James Trusty, was quick to come to CNN to describe some of the charges and recount his client's reaction.
"He thought about it," Trusty said.
"He said, 'This is just a sad day. I can't believe I've been accused.'"
Trusty continued, "Those are pretty much my words summarized from what he said. But, at the same time, it immediately recognizes the historical nature of this. This is crossing the Rubicon."
For days, Trump's team had been seeking information about his allegation, after three of his lawyers met with Justice Department officials on Monday.
They came to that meeting having said the charges were likely, and nothing that was said changed that outlook, according to people close to Trump.
But while they suspected an indictment was imminent, they were based more on rumors, gossip and news stories than on verified facts.
As speculation intensified ahead of the Justice Department's notification of the indictment, Trump's team recorded a video in which the former president reacted to the expected charges in a direct address to the camera, and standing in front of what appeared to be a version of a painting of President Theodore Roosevelt and Kaiser Wilhelm II, leader of Germany during World War I.
Half an hour after announcing his accusation, he posted the video on his social media.
In it, he lashes out at Democrats, presents the indictment as proof of "a nation in decline," and calls himself an "innocent man."
Trump's team had urged Republicans close to him to start issuing statements, and soon his allies forced him:
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a tweet:
"Sad day for America. God bless President Trump."
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went further, calling it a "dark day" and vowing:
"House Republicans will hold this brazen use of power as a weapon accountable."
That Trump was surrounded in Bedminster by his political and communication circle, rather than most of his lawyers, reflected both the uncertainty of when the charges might come and the way Trump has consistently addressed his legal challenges.
His political advisers had been preparing for weeks to exploit the federal indictment to the fullest.
His team has come to view federal police actions against him as a critical part of their fundraising strategy.
Internet fundraising — which has long been the lifeblood of Trump's political operation because high-level Republican donors largely shun him — has dried up for all Republican candidates in recent years, including Trump.
GOP donors are exhausted by constant hysterical calls to give Trump money to stop Democrats from destroying the nation.
It takes a lot today to capture the attention of those taxpayers; The accusations are one of the few events that embolden the rank and file enough to dip into their pockets.
The last time Trump was impeached, in New York, his campaign said it had raised more than$1.2 million in the week after the indictment, a huge increase from its hitherto anemic fundraising.
Since then, Trump's fundraising has fallen back to a disappointing level, according to people briefed on the situation.
Not even an hour had passed since Trump learned of his indictment when his campaign had already sent its first mass email to capitalize on the feeling of persecution and shared victimhood that the former president has fostered among his followers.
Trump's fundraising appeal by 19:45 p.m. on Thursday began:
"We are watching our Republic DIE before our very eyes."
Trump's allies outside his official campaign structure have also prepared to milk this moment, and to boost his political antibodies.
Preparations
Officials at the main pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc, have been feeding allies opposition research to have talking points to attack Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought the case against Trump, in television and radio appearances and on social media.
The group has even distributed information about Smith's wife to try to suggest that her donations to Democratic politicians have created a conflict of interest for her husband.
Last week, when allies of the former president saw reports that Smith was most likely nearing the end of his investigation, strategists working with Trump's super PAC began drafting a television ad to coincide with the expected federal indictment.
The announcement will be submitted for national cable placement on Friday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans.
The announcement's messages will coincide with talking points circulating among some of Trump's most ardent supporters on Capitol Hill.
They will present the indictment as a partisan plot by President Joe Biden's Justice Department.
These allies also plan to insinuate — without evidence — that the Justice Department has timed this indictment to distract attention from House Republicans' investigations into Biden and his family's business dealings.
As Trump prepares for his appearance Tuesday afternoon in Miami federal court, some of his close allies are preparing a campaign to pressure their competitors in the race for the Republican presidential nomination to rally around him.
"All 'Republicans' running for president should suspend their campaign and go to Miami as a show of support," tweeted Charlie Kirk, a young conservative activist close to Trump.
"If they don't," Kirk added, "they're part of the problem. Either we have an opposition party or we don't."
Competence
Operatives from several rival campaigns had privately admitted they feared prosecution because it would hog the news cycle and deprive their candidates of media attention.
A senior aide to one of Trump's competitors in the Republican primary, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said GOP voters overwhelmingly believed any accusations against Trump were a Democratic plot and wanted to see all Republicans fight to defend the former president.
This leaves most Republicans running in 2024 in the abject position of feeling that the only way to appease their voters is to defend Trump at all costs and pause efforts to contrast their records with his.
Trump's team conducted the same pressure campaign the last time he was impeached, in New York, and it worked to great effect.
In mid-March, the former president predicted his arrest was imminent, and his political operation and media allies began publicly intimidating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis into coming to Trump's defense, which he eventually did.
This time, DeSantis attacked prosecutors but did not defend Trump. Without promising to pardon Trump, as another candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, did, DeSantis declared on Twitter:
"The DeSantis administration will bring accountability to the DOJ, root out political bias, and end guns once and for all."
There were other, more eccentric parallels Thursday night with Trump's first indictment.
About 90 minutes after learning of his latest travails, Trump — who in March was playing a disc jockey in the courtyard of his Mar-a-Lago club after his April appearance — headed to the main building in Bedminster for al fresco dining.
Dressed in a red Make America Great Again cap, he returned to DJing, according to a person there, using an iPad to play some of his favorite songs:
Elvis, opera singer Pavarotti and his show idol, James Brown.
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