Will Trump Be Indicted? Tried? Imprisoned? Erased From History?

Today someone on Twitter seemed to be advocating-- for history's sake-- that Trump be hanged. As you can see, my Twitter followers would overwhelmingly like to see him face Justice. I feel the same way-- and then some. If you agree he's been not just the worst president in history but also the most corrupt, the most venal and the one who has caused the most pain and suffering to the American people, then prison is the least he should be made to endure.

Biden has already pledged not to pardon him. He may be reluctant to strat his presidency off with a lie but his natural inclination would be to grant Trump and everyone in his inner circle blanket pardons. That may even wind up being part of a deal Trump strikes with him in return for accepting the election results.

Yesterday, addressing the problem of an indictment, etc, Politico's Josh Gerstein wrote that Biden and his choice for attorney general "will quickly face thorny questions about how they plan to address" Señor Trumpanzee's reign of criminality as well as what to do about other and other members of his criminal regime, including family and creatures like William Barr and Stephen Miller.

Gerstein himself is an arch-conservative and the wrong person to ask to write a story like this. Still, he noted that A spokesperson for Biden’s transition team declined to comment on its plans for pending cases, but on the campaign trail, Democratic nominee Biden has vowed that he will reverse what he describes as improper political considerations influencing Justice Department decisions. 'It's the most dangerous thing that has happened so far: the politicization of the Department of Justice,' Biden said during a September appearance in North Carolina. 'It's become the Department of Trump, and that's wrong.'" Other than in his first sentence Gerstein never addressed indicting just. I'm afraid he is a reflection of the status quo, trans-artisan establishment which is sure to vigorously oppose sending Trump to prison.

Vows to purge the Justice Department of political influence are far from new. Attorney General Eric Holder made similar pledges after Obama came into office and Attorney General Jeff Sessions did the same after Trump won eight years later. Each suggested the traditional independence of the law enforcement agency had been sullied by their predecessors and resolved to change course.

“I am determined to ensure that there shall be a new day for the dedicated career professionals I am once again honored to call my colleagues,” Holder said as he was sworn in in 2009-- by then Vice President Joe Biden. “There shall be no place for political favoritism… We will restore the institution.”

Beyond the posturing, insiders say the truth is that the rule at DOJ is always more one of continuity than change. Indeed, the bureaucracy sometimes is reluctant to follow through on marching orders from a new administration or even directly from a president.

Let month, a far more dispassionate and reliable reporter-- Jeff Wise-- took at look at Trump's legal vulnerabilities for New York Magazine. Mueller all but testified before Congress that he didn't indict Trump on criminal charges because it is against DOJ policy to indict a sitting president.

Wise wrote that "It may seem unlikely that Trump will ever wind up in a criminal court. His entire life, after all, is one long testament to the power of getting away with things, a master class in criminality without consequences, even before he added presidentiality and all its privileges to his arsenal of defenses. As he himself once said, 'When you're a star, they let you do it.' But for all his advantages and all his enablers, including loyalists in the Justice Department and the federal judiciary, Trump now faces a level of legal risk unlike anything in his notoriously checkered past-- and well beyond anything faced by any previous president leaving office. To assess the odds that he will end up on trial, and how the proceedings would unfold, I spoke with some of the country's top prosecutors, defense attorneys, and legal scholars. For the past four years, they have been weighing the case against Trump: the evidence already gathered, the witnesses prepared to testify, the political and constitutional issues involved in prosecuting an ex-president. Once he leaves office, they agree, there is good reason to think Trump will face criminal charges…Trump could become the first former president in American history to find himself on trial-- and perhaps even behind bars."

Wise seems to agree with many legal experts that Trump is more likely to face legal charges at the state level because "state laws aren't subject to presidential pardons, and they cover a host of crimes beyond those committed in the White House." I have no doubt that New York Attorney General Leticia James and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance will both work to convict Trump. Wise has some very good news on that front: "Unlike the federal court system, which often allows prisoners to remain free during the appeals process, state courts tend to waste no time in carrying out punishment. After someone is sentenced in New York City, their next stop is Rikers Island. Once there, as Trump awaited transfer to a state prison, the man who'd treated the presidency like a piggy bank would receive yet another handout at the public expense: a toothbrush and toothpaste, bedding, a towel, and a green plastic cup."

What happens to the Secret Service guards charged with protecting him for life? Their own cells? That's why I prefer damnatio memoriae, which would rescind all acts signed by Trump, all of his executive orders, and all of his appointments to federal positions. Congress would also specify that all government documents referring to Trump or his administration clearly carry the denotation that the period was a legal interregnum without constitutional legitimacy.