Lock Him Up!

Dana Millbank works out the counterfactual of what would happen if the demands of Trump and his lickspittles that his serious crimes be treated more like Clinton’s imaginary ones were actually carried out:

For months, voters have been telling Republicans they are tired of hearing Trump and his allies relitigating the 2020 election. Finally, Republicans are moving on. They are now relitigating 2016. Seven and a half years after the world learned of Clinton’s private server, GOP leaders cry anew: But her emails!

So, by all means, let’s relitigate. In fact, Trump should be treated exactly the way Clinton was:

The FBI should undertake a sprawling, multiyear investigation into Trump’s conduct, grilling him and his staff, running extensive forensics, and examining whether his actions allowed hostile actors to compromise U.S. security. The FBI should continue to keep him under investigation while he runs for president in 2024.

In July 2024, after Trump secures the GOP nomination, the head of the FBI should break with long-standing Justice Department protocols and publicly announce that while he doesn’t recommend prosecuting Trump, Trump was “extremely careless” with classified information, that “any reasonable person” in Trump’s position would have known their actions were inappropriate, that “it is possible that hostile actors gained access” to government secrets, and that “there is evidence of potential violations” of law.

Then, 13 days before the 2024 election, a top official with the Democratic nominee’s campaign should announce that he has heard via leaks by “active” FBI agents of a coming “surprise” related to the Trump investigation.

Eleven days before the election, the FBI director, in another breach of protocol, should send a public letter to Congress announcing that he has reopened the investigation into Trump because of new, “pertinent” information.

The traction Republicans have gotten out of the idea that the FBI was in the tank for Clinton in 2016 is something else.

Anyway, I’m still inclined that this is even worse than John Podesta’s risotto recipe:

Among the new disclosures in the 36-page filing were that the search yielded three classified documents in desks inside Mr. Trump’s office, with more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers with classification markings in the residence, including some at the most restrictive levels.

That was twice the number of classified documents the former president’s lawyers turned over voluntarily while swearing an oath that they had returned all the material demanded by the government.