Equal Justice

On Thursday, the New York Times published one of their "Debatable" pieces (link here) that examined both side of the question about whether Donald Trump should be criminally prosecuted if crimes are identified once he leaves office.

The piece thoughtfully examines the pros and cons of both a "yes" or "no" answer.

One almost certain pitfall, if the federal government moves forward with a criminal prosecution sometimes January 20 of next year, is that it will look like President Biden is attacking a political rival. Even though he would likely have no input into the prosecution decision, it would still be pinned on him. (As a matter of law, a sitting President has almost no control over which cases are and are not prosecuted, to prevent abuses of the sort seen during Richard Nixon's presidency).

An alternative would be to have a special counsel (which is essentially the same as a special prosecutor) handle the matter. Trump could hardly complain about this, because his administration did the same thing, appointing a special counsel to investigate Barack Obama's presidency, a process that's still ongoing (but has produced nothing to date other than the prosecution of a low-level career FBI agent).

One route to avoiding all this is to allow the state and/or the city of New York to make the first move. Trump, his business, and his family are currently being investigated by the New York state attorney general (a matter which the linked piece does not mention) that could lead to criminal charges. The same is true in the city of New York (which the piece does mention) with a potential prosecution being led by the Manhattan district attorney.

Those investigations undoubtedly are further along than anything on the national level and thus would be the first to proceed to trial, should criminal charges be leveled. Then, once those potential prosecutions run their course, the feds could make their move.

In my opinion, once he leaves office, Trump should be treated like any other private citizen and be criminally prosecuted if the charges are warranted. No one should be above the law, because if they are, then you cannot have equal justice under the law.

Not prosecuting a former President who is also a criminal would be patently un-American. This country has prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned governors, senators, attorneys general, and more. A President should be no exception.