Trump will break America to keep himself out of prison (Brian Beutler)

[swag]

https://crooked.com/articles/donald-trump-law/


. . .


The government’s operating theory is that Congress would impeach and remove a president who committed crimes that needed to be prosecuted, at which point the normal course of justice would resume. It does not contemplate the possibility that a supine Congress would simply shrug at the president’s criminal activity and proceed as though nothing happened.

The crime prosecutors say Trump committed in 2016 carries a five year statute of limitations. Were he to be removed from office quickly or lose his campaign for re-election, those prosecutors could, and likely would, swoop in and charge him with violating election law. Trump’s freedom—his bodily autonomy—now appears to turn almost entirely on his ability to remain in power through at least 2021.

By allowing Trump to serve in limbo, temporarily immune from justice, Congress and DOJ have transformed the stakes of the 2020 election in Trump’s mind into a make-or-break, can’t lose contest to preserve his own liberty. And if he concludes that he can only hold power by breaking America, then he will break America to keep himself out of prison.

The 2020 election is going to be poisonous no matter what. Trump is an immoral and toxic person who can’t grapple maturely with even the prospect of defeat. But what few limits of decency and ethics he places on himself, or others place on him, will fall if the consequence of losing isn’t just humiliation, but imprisonment. It also creates a near certainty that if he does lose, he will refuse to accept the results of the election.

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[Iliyah]

1. It's not only him. It is the Republican party as well.

All are in cahoots with the Russians and stealing the elections.

[Ponietz]

2. Exactly.

Now is the time.

[Hortensis]

3. Worse, the Republican leadership will break America

to keep themselves in power, and also possibly also out of prison, but they intend to get more power, not less, and to keep it. Trump and the overturning of democratic elections at both the presidential and state levels are big symptoms of a huge problem.

[PatSeg]

4. Yes

We cannot underestimate the damage that republicans will do in order to save their own asses. So many appear to have been compromised. This is not government business as usual.