I'm not saying Trump is a criminal; I am not on the jury and do not have the facts. But I'm saying someone should be convicted if they're guilty even if it has political implications.
Whether or not people are angry at a result, that is their choice to make.
Should Joe Biden be prosecuted for negligently storing classified documents in his home? Every person in the US is guilty of some baseline level of criminality, and the more “interesting” your life, the more crimes you are likely to have committed.
If the US wants to have non-criminal presidents then it should reform its vast state and federal criminal codes so that such a person can actually exist. Until that happens, a norm against criminalizing ex-presidents (except for serious crimes) is a good norm to have.
[I’m not sure it has to be said here, but my political beliefs are completely disjoint with Trump’s]
What's the point of having these laws if they're not enforced?
Yes, yes, and yes. Every little legal infraction should be prosecuted, no matter how small or who you are. If they don't matter or shouldn't matter, the law should be changed; keeping them on the books and selectively enforcing them when it's convenient isn't fair to anyone.
> Until that happens, a norm against criminalizing ex-presidents (except for serious crimes) is a good norm to have.
Funny enough, the framers back then claimed that law applies to presidents too ... and that this is what makes United States special and different then monarchy.
If there is no attempt at equality in the face of the law, then what's the point?
When I worked for a bank we had to undergo quarterly insider trading training. When we were and weren’t allowed to trade stock, should we come into possession of material information. Of course that kind of stuff was way above my pay grade, but we were instructed to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
And yet Congress is allowed to day trade during classified hearings.
No, the solution is to imprison fewer people from disadvantaged classes. Imprisoning Trump does little to help all the people in prison for dubious reasons.
The logical conclusion of a policy of investigating and punishing all violations of all the laws currently on the books, is that almost everybody in America should be criminalized. That is not what a well functioning criminal justice system looks like.
The problem is that coming for ex-presidents in particular leads to them not leaving office and becoming dictators. And this is far worse outcome.
Notice how Trump didn’t come for Obama, although he vocally promised to do so. Then errors of his ways were explained to him and after election he stopped talking about it completely. Now social and political contract is broken in regard to him, while he did demonstrate necessary restraint himself.
