Donald Trump’s indictment followed a head-spinning two weeks during which the former president predicted his own arrest but, almost as quickly, suggested that he’d beat the rap…

When it did come on Thursday, the indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office caught Trump and his circle of advisers off-guard, according to a person familiar with the matter. Some had even planned spring-break trips with their families in the coming weeks that had to be rapidly canceled…

Trump had a few days before also gloated on social media about the “total disarray in the Manhattan DA’s office.”

A decent start to the next episode of the decline and fall of America’s most contemptible politician.