Lock Him Up
By 
One interesting thing about the strange speech Mitch McConnell gave today observing that Donald Trump was guilty as hell but could not be convicted because of the newly discovered principle that presidents impeached during their term in office cannot be impeached after the fact (while blaming Nancy Pelosi for his own decision to push the trial until after January 20) is that he pointed out that the impeachment process is not the only possible remedy for presidential misconduct:
Donald Trump limped his way to acquittal in his second impeachment trial, with 57 senators voting to convict him of inciting insurrection. But it is an ominous sign that not only did many of the senators who did vote to acquit base their position on a technicality — Trump was supposedly ineligible for impeachment as an ex-officeholder, as opposed to not guilty of the crime — they conspicuously pointed toward the court system as a venue for further prosecution.
“The ultimate accountability is through our criminal justice system where political passions are checked,” said Republican senator Thom Tillis, who voted not guilty, “No president is above the law or immune from criminal prosecution, and that includes former president Trump.” Mitch McConnell, who likewise voted to acquit, announced, “Impeachment was never meant to be the final forum for American justice. … We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former Presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”
This might seem fanciful, or a convenient way for Republicans to evade responsibility. But Trump is facing serious legal exposure.
As Jeff Wise wrote for us back in September, Trump is the subject of two ongoing investigations in the state of New York. One, by Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance, is criminal. The other, by Attorney General Letitia James, is currently civil, but could easily become a criminal case.
Both these investigations concern financial crimes that have, at least in part, been documented by the media and appear to involve relatively clear violations of the law. Trump has made several deals in which he apparently kept two sets of books, giving one set of numbers to his lenders and a very different set of numbers to tax authorities.
Even if prosecutors turn up nothing new, which is hardly a given, he faces a high risk of being charged. There’s no reason to believe the investigations are getting better for Trump, and plenty of reason to believe they can get worse. The Wall Street Journal today reports that Vance’s probe is expanding to look at additional Manhattan properties not previously known to be part of his investigation.
There is no defense for the Republican conference refusing to convict Trump. But if these comments make prosecutors in New York more comfortable about prosecuting Trump, that’s not nothing, either. (And while the fake-sophisticated response is that powerful white guys never face any legal consequences, you might want to ask Sheldon Silver what he thinks about that.)