So the terrible part for Trump is that they can't expose the HHPWHATK - because they don't really have anything, and there isn't a conspiracy of HHPWHATK being protected by the Corrupt Elite. Trump can't give them what they want. And they want that thing a lot more than they want tariffs and tax cuts and shrinking Medicaid and all the things that Trump is now telling them they should be super-stoked about. This is the thing that they were emotionally invested in, the proxy for why the Democrats and Establishment Republicans deserved to be thrown out, the reason that the fight was worth it.

If Bondi opens up the kimono and there's nothing there, they will either be: i) super mad they were deceived before; or ii) convinced that Bondi's trying to deceive them now. Both are really, really bad for Trump.

Replying to my own post, this is why they're willing to talk to Maxwell. They need some scalps. Before, she didn't have anything useful enough to get a deal - at that time, prosecutors weren't going to trade her any leniency unless they could get a conviction of someone bigger than her. And she clearly didn't have that. But now, it would get Trump out of a bad political box if she would go public with even just some innuendo or hints or suppositions about some names - something that they could then start an investigation into in an effort to get to the HHPWHATK. It may never result in any convictions, but it would give the MAGA faithful something to spin their wheels on until after the midterms. And Maxwell is certainly going to be in the market to play ball on this....