Trump Must Be Prosecuted by Don Rose

 

President-elect Joe Biden seems to be doing his usual mushy number on a big question that has been percolating for a while now: Should there be a federal criminal investigation and prosecution of Donald Trump once he is out of office?

Though Biden says everything is still on the table, his rationale for not investigating is a desire to bring us all together after our long nightmare of division and hatred. Certainly, a noteworthy goal. Sort of the same excuse Barack Obama gave for not wanting to prosecute the Wall Streeters who brought about the great recession or those who lied us into the true crime of our century, the Iraq War. That left all still free to repeat, especially the Wall Streeters.

Look—as our president-elect keeps repeating—I am profoundly in favor of uniting America. But not at the cost of letting this madman go Scot-free for what many of us see as hate crimes against our democracy, to say nothing of a plethora of financial crimes.

Backing up a bit, please note that two tiers of investigation are going on at the state level in New York. The District Attorney is looking at criminal charges of tax fraud, insurance fraud, hush-money payments and grand larceny; the NY attorney general is investigating civil charges related to various acts of tax fraud. Those prospective state crimes involve actions prior to his presidency and will continue even if he manages to get himself pardoned for federal crimes as president.

Trump frequently ruminates on whether he can pardon himself—suggesting that he thinks he may have committed some criminal acts. No one has a definite answer, though the preponderance of legal thought seems to indicate he cannot. In any case, that will eventually be decided by the US Supreme Court. The other notion is that he could resign the presidency at the last minute, after pardoning Mike Pence for any past issues, and then have new President Pence pardon him. Problem solved?

But absent a presidential pardon there is a wide range of possible criminal issues, beginning with what he is doing even as I write this: Interfering in and trying to steal a federal election. Surely his various efforts to get state officials to throw out legitimate election results cross a line into the criminal.

There is also the matter of income tax evasion and various possible criminal actions dating back to the Mueller probe that the special counsel did not pursue; also, obstruction of justice relating to the Mueller investigation. There are many possible matters of self-dealing involving our own or foreign governments especially involving his own resorts and hotels.

Sadly, he can’t be prosecuted for his two greatest crimes against humanity, the destruction of 550 families at the southern border and his intentional failure to take significant action early and throughout the pandemic, leaving countless thousands to die who might have been saved. Those are “policy” matters and not prosecutable.

I don’t play a lawyer, even on Facebook, but my legal eagle friends suggest many more possible investigations, including into his role as an unindicted co-conspirator in Michael Cohen’s criminal case. Or prospective illegal deals with Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Erdogan or Saudi Arabia’s murderous Mohammed bin Salman—those closely guarded secret conversations with each of them are suspicious. There are also possible illegal deals with companies whose products he promoted such as hydroxychloroquine, or improper dealings to benefit the businesses of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

A man who shows no ethics and violates so many norms may easily have crossed the line into criminal conduct must be investigated, along with key associates starting with Attorney General William Barr who has clearly corrupted the Department of Justice.

Letting Trump continue his destructive actions as a civilian still will never bring us unity with the third of the nation that still thinks George Soros or someone stole the election for Biden…the same third that likely still thinks Obama was born in Kenya…the same third that is finding QAnon’s lunatic conspiracy theories the new gospel.   

Unity schmunity.

-Don Rose