What a splendid week this would be – on the 79th anniversary of the GIs storming into Normandy to fight fascism – if Jack Smith, on the home front, were to strike a blow against fascism.

OK, maybe it won’t be this week. But it’s manifestly evident that he’ll do it soon. Like, for real. No kidding, really soon. No need to keep feeling like Charlie Brown after Lucy yanks the football. I’m talking really seriously soon.

I know, I know. You’ve long been waiting for the special counsel to lower the boom on the serial lowlife, to the point of forfeiting all hope, but consider this: Trump’s flunky lawyers wouldn’t have flown to DC yesterday, and met with Smith for two hours, unless he had clearly signaled his intention to stick a fork in their crime-addled client.

The lawyers pleaded for a meetup, because, as sources told the New York Times last night, “Trump’s advisers have concluded that there might not be much more time to stave off charges.” And the criminal defendant (34 counts in NY)/convicted sexual abuser (E. Jean Carroll case) has obviously been told that he’s in deep poop for his theft of classified documents, because he whined yesterday on his social media site, “HOW CAN DOJ POSSIBLY CHARGE ME, WHO DID NOTHING WRONG…”

How can the DOJ charge him? Is that really a serious question?

Granted, none of this matters a whit to his MAGA nitwits, who revel in his perfidies. But mainstream Americans, at least those of us who haven’t gone numb waiting for justice, know full well that Jack Smith has a powerful case. Which is what this seminal moment requires, given the fact that he’s poised to conduct the most crucial prosecution in the history of the Justice Department. Indeed, federal judge Beryl Howell, after ordering a Trump lawyer to testify about likely crimes, has already written: “Evidence demonstrates that the former president willfully sought to retain classified documents when he was not authorized to do so, and knew it.”

That sentence gives us the gist. Trump stole classified documents (some of which were at the highest top-secret level) that belonged to the U.S. government; “willful retention” is a federal crime, listed in the espionage statute. He lied about them and impeded federal authorities who sought to retrieve them; obstruction is another federal crime. He has baselessly claimed that he had the power to declassify the documents via the magical whims of his mind; as he declared during CNN’s recent MAGA showcase, “I took what I took and it gets declassified,” and as he recently told lickspittle Sean Hannity, he could declassify stuff “even by thinking about it.” In truth, he simply ignored well-established declassification procedures.

Smith already knows that Trump ignored those procedures – because the folks at the National Archives have told him so. Apparently there are “16 records” of proof. In a recent letter to Trump, acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote: “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records” – and warned him that Smith was “prepared to demonstrate” Trump’s guilt “with specificity.”

Which brings us to the latest farce, the revelation that Trump in 2021 boasted about the contents of a classified document (war planning against Iran) in a meeting with some people who didn’t have security clearances. Smith has obtained a recording of this meeting. And Trump reportedly said, during the meeting, that he hadn’t magically declassified the document in question – and he even acknowledged that there was a procedure for doing so. The DOJ is now seeking that document, but Trump’s lawyers are saying that, gee whiz, they just can’t seem to find it.

There’s so much more to chew on (Trump workers playing hide and seek with classified doc boxes, in defiance of DOJ subpoenas). And some of it is black comedy, like what happened last fall when a Mar-a-Lago worker drained the swimming pool and oh so coincidentally caused water damage in a room where computer servers logged the records of Trump’s security cameras. Trump says that the “Marxist” DOJ has concocted a “Box Hoax,” and that Dems are trying “to Rigg the 2024 election” (leave Diana Rigg out of this!), but I’ll go with the coalition of former prosecutors and defense lawyers who have concluded, in an exhaustive new report, that “there is sufficient evidence to obtain and sustain a conviction” on multiple counts involving six federal statutes.

When (not if?) the indictment finally comes, many of us will be tempted to celebrate. Understandably so. But it may be wiser to ponder with due solemnity how this country has devolved to the point where an aspiring fascist could gain the highest office – and be so well positioned to threaten a restoration that would sanctify lawlessness for the foreseeable future. And if the wheels of justice grind too slowly to jail him before the next election, those of us who respect the rule of law will be tasked with keeping him exiled.