If you’re facing Saturday morning bleary-eyed and with an increased need for caffeine, you may be one of many who stayed up Friday evening to dive into the final sentencing documents for Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. That document, which was due at the courthouse before midnight, was expected to provide serious insight into the state of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Would it finally detail the interactions between not just Manafort and his Russian contact Konstantin Kilimnik, but show who else was aware of his actions back at the Trump campaign? Would it, as some rumors had indicated, including information “devastating” to Trump? Or would it still be heavily slathered with the black-bars-of-retraction, indicating that there were still a Payless of shoes waiting to drop?
As it turns out, the answer was … who knows? Because no court documents hit the public record overnight. The midnight groan of ten thousand reporters constantly conducting a simultaneous scan of court databases and Twitter was loud enough to rattle windows. But it’s unlikely that Mueller’s team stood up a federal judge.
In previous instances where a document was expected, but failed to appear, the issue was simply this — the document contained too much information. That is, the document contained information that the special counsel’s office or other interested parties felt could impact other cases, including potential cases not yet under indictment.
In those situations, the document was filed. It was just filed under seal. So it’s entirely likely that Judge Amy Berman Jackson, fresh off smacking Roger Stone on the nose, is sipping her coffee in a much more composed state than the rest of us, scanning carefully through the documents Mueller has provided. But those documents are unlikely to hit the public record until everyone is in agreement about just how much of them still needs to be under a double coat of Sharpie.
There’s a chance these redactions could be simply limited to another brewing case around Manafort, as multiple sources have indicated potential charges being prepared by New York state. But in case there’s any doubt — redactions at this point are not happy news for Donald Trump, or for anyone else involved in the the campaign.