\n
Comment on this story<\/title><path d=\"M14 14V2H2v9.47h8.18L12.43 13ZM3 10.52V3h10v9.23l-2.5-1.66Z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<p>Comment<\/p>\n<p><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"teaser-content grid-center\">\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Should former presidents who are believed to have committed crimes, either in office or afterward, be indicted?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">It is never simply the case that prosecutors in the U.S. indict anyone who they believe is guilty of\u00a0crime, as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague\u00a0Clive Crook has\u00a0pointed out. For one, it\u2019s misconduct to indict without confidence that a conviction will follow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">More generally,\u00a0there are plenty of petty (and even some not so petty) crimes on the books that a prosecutor intent on imprisoning a target could\u00a0invoke if they were dead set on indictment. But prosecutors aren\u2019t supposed to figure out whom to indict and then look for a crime that can yield a conviction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">On the other hand, we should ignore calls to avoid investigations and prosecutions\u00a0because of their likely electoral effects. Will Trump\u2019s chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, should he seek it, be helped or harmed by enforcing a warrant and seizing boxes of materials that he (allegedly) shouldn\u2019t have had in his possession?(1)What about the possibility of angering Trump\u2019s supporters to the point of civil unrest?\u00a0\u00a0Even if prosecutors could know the answer to these questions, the potential political fallout shouldn\u2019t be a factor in their decision\u00a0about whether to prosecute.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">If the rule of law means anything, it is that no one can use the threat of violence as a Get Out of Jail Free card. As Greg Sargent of the Washington Post\u2019s Plum Line blog wrote,\u00a0\u201c…there will be no appeasing Donald Trump and his most fervent supporters. There will be no point at which they acknowledge that any law enforcement activity related to the court-approved search of the former president\u2019s home is legitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Indeed, the former president\u2019s devout\u00a0fans\u00a0are likely to take that view of any criminal justice action targeting him, no matter the evidence. We know who Trump is. Just as he can\u2019t\u00a0lose an election without claiming fraud (indeed, he claims fraud even when he wins), he will never voluntarily acknowledge the legitimacy of a legal action against him or his allies. That can\u2019t be the basis for ignoring what otherwise would be a decision to investigate. Or indict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Prosecution is always a judgment call. And in that sense prosecution decisions\u00a0are always going to be broadly political. When the person involved is a politician, that is only going to be more obvious. And that\u2019s not bad. The criminal justice system is part of the larger political system. The rule of law, after all, is a political concept, part of a general idea of how self-government should work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">What prosecution decisions shouldn\u2019t be is partisan, which is to say, they shouldn\u2019t\u00a0be based on the best interests of one political party. Nor should they be personal, where individuals are singled out for prosecution \u2014 or spared from it \u2014 because of their political affiliation. That\u2019s why the \u201clock her up\u201d chants directed at Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign (and, eventually, at a host of other opponents) sanctioned by Trump were such a big deal. They were a repudiation of the entire notion that the law shouldn\u2019t be partisan or\u00a0personal. They were, in effect, a repudiation of the rule of law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">So where does that leave us? Trump\u2019s illiberal behavior and that of his supporters shouldn\u2019t give him immunity. But while a decision to indict Trump would need\u00a0to be\u00a0clearly explained, we can\u2019t judge it on whether it is persuasive to voters at large.\u00a0And there is no way law enforcement can make sure that their actions won\u2019t\u00a0be misconstrued by Trump and his supporters, or even by the larger block of Republicans who find appeasing the former president their safest path.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Moreover, because any decision to indict or not\u00a0is inherently\u00a0political,\u00a0Trump\u2019s behavior is a legitimate part of that decision. Trump\u2019s implicit claim that he is above the law should factor into prosecution decisions \u2014 and make an indictment more appropriate. So should Trump\u2019s\u00a0active political career. Gerald Ford\u2019s pardon of Richard Nixon was justified in part because Nixon mostly accepted exile from active politics. Trump is attempting to poison the republic as rapidly as he can. That can\u2019t\u00a0justify seeking a way to imprison him, but it certainly can be taken into account when deciding whether or not to overlook crimes that come to the attention of the government. Even at the lowest levels of law enforcement, a suspect who reacts to an investigation by rushing to social media with a pledge to continue ignoring the law would be more likely to be prosecuted than one who acts contrite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">In other words, the decision can\u2019t be personal in the sense of Trump being a political opponent of the current president, but it can be \u2014 should be \u2014 personal in that it must take into account who Trump is and what he is doing.\u00a0As many have pointed out, claims that this or that action against Trump is unprecedented for a former president get it all wrong; what is unprecedented was a lawless president and former president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">It should take a good deal more than\u00a0having a plausible\u00a0case to decide to indict a former president. It\u2019s really closer to the other way around: An indictment must be made when the evidence, the law and the former president himself make it obvious that not acting would be the exception to normal prosecutorial standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">As a non-lawyer, I can\u2019t say whether that\u2019s true for any of the investigations swirling around Trump. What I can say is that through his own actions, Trump has pretty much begged prosecutors to act if they do have a case. Because otherwise it sure will look as if\u00a0they are succumbing to his intimidation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Would Locking Up Trump Serve the Public Interest?: Clive Crook<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">In US Politics, Moderates Still Run the Show: David A. Hopkins<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Why Did Trump Take Classified Documents in the First Place?: Timothy L. O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">(1) At least one poll since the FBI seized boxes of material from Trump suggested he was now looking stronger for the 2024 nomination. But ultra-early polling can be misleading because it tends to reflect name recognition and reflect which candidates have been in the news and therefore on top of voters\u2019 minds. All in all, I\u2019d recommend mostly ignoring nomination or general election polls this early.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">More stories like this are available on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\" rel=\"noopener\">bloomberg.com\/opinion<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"b bt bc-offblack dn-ns hide-for-print\" data-testid=\"mostRead\" subscriptions-section=\"content\"\/><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/trumps-behavior-strengthens-case-against-him\/2022\/08\/23\/2041c1b8-22e0-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Comment on this story Comment Should former presidents who are believed to have committed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-cj-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35098,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35096\/revisions\/35098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}