The District Attorney

On Thursday night, the New York Times broke the story (links here and here) that the Manhattan district attorney had subpoenaed Donald Trump's company to determine if any state laws had been broken in the hush money scandal where porn stars were paid large sums of money to keep quiet about the President's adulterous affairs with them.

New York state law makes it a crime to falsify business records, which may have occurred in covering up the purpose of the payments, meaning that company officials could be charged with a crime if they directed this to happen.

Including Trump himself.

The good news about this is that if Trump is charged, he cannot pardon himself out of the pickle. A President's constitutional pardoning powers only apply to federal charges.

The unanswered question here is whether the state could put Trump on trial in criminal court while he's still President. That's a legal situation which has never occurred before and is thus legally uncharted waters.

Nevertheless, it's telling that Trump may end up going down in history as the first President charged with a crime while in office. That's a legacy he would carry forever.