Trump won the presidency, our system of governance presumes a certain base level of public spiritedness - at the level of the presidency, in Congress and in the electorate at large. It is guaranteed to be undertaken again, regardless of whether present and future accusations are justified.Īs we’ve seen over and over again since Mr. Garland’s motives and methods are models of judiciousness and restraint, the act of an attorney general of one party seeking to indict and convict a former and possibly future president of the other party is the ringing of a bell that cannot be unrung. But that doesn’t mean these consequences wouldn’t happen. The instinct of Democrats is to angrily dismiss such concerns. How long do you think it would take for a freshly inaugurated President DeSantis to pardon a convicted and jailed Donald Trump? Hours? Minutes? And that move would probably be combined with a promise to investigate and indict Joe Biden for the various “crimes” he allegedly committed in office. Trump somehow ended up barred from running or his party opted for another candidate to be its nominee in 2024 - say, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. We wouldn’t even avoid potentially calamitous consequences if Mr. He would be reviving an old American archetype: the folk-hero outlaw who takes on and seeks to take down the powerful in the name of the people. And he might well continue this campaign even if convicted, possibly running for president from a jail cell.
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Trump declares another run for the presidency just as he’s indicted and treats the trial as a circus illustrating the power of the Washington swamp and the need to put Republicans back in charge to drain it? It would be a risible claim, but potentially a politically effective one. Trump and the rest of his party would have to contend with the government’s actual justification of the raid itself.)īut the nightmare wouldn’t stop there.
(Though at a federal judge’s order a redacted version of the warrant affidavit may soon be released, so Mr.
Trump himself and from members of his party and its media rabble-rousers. Within hours, leading Republicans had issued inflammatory statements, and these statements would likely grow louder and more incendiary through any trial, both from Mr. We caught a glimpse of those alternative risks as soon as the Mar-a-Lago raid was announced. Trump or another bad actor would certainly be unnerving and risky. We have reason to think it would do so again, especially with reforms to the Electoral Count Act likely to pass during the lame duck session following the upcoming midterm elections, if not before.
During the Trump years, the system passed its stress test. Trump’s detractors argue, the rule of law demands it - and failing to fulfill that demand could end up being extremely dangerous.īut we’ve been through a version of the turbulent Trump experience before. That seems to point to the need to push forward with a case, despite the risk of turning it into a regular occurrence. Trump in which he is convinced that he can do whatever he wants with complete impunity. That means the country would be facing a potential second term for Mr. Trump will have learned that becoming president has effectively immunized him from prosecution. 6 or the potential mishandling of classified government documents, Mr. Garland does not press charges against him for Jan. Trump nonetheless deserves it - and he does.
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