8/31/20
Then there all the financial crimes Trump might be hiding by refusing to release his tax returns and other financial documents. The Manhattan district attorney and the New York attorney general are said to be investigating Trump for potential campaign finance violations, bank fraud and tax fraud.While many of Trump’s awful acts — e.g., confining children in cages or unleashing riot police on peaceful protesters — are merely violations of democratic norms, there is also plentiful evidence of lawbreaking on his part. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York has identified Trump as “Individual-1” in a conspiracy with his attorney Michael Cohen to violate campaign finance laws by secretly paying off two women with whom he allegedly had affairs. Trump’s impeachment, on charges of trying to extort Ukraine into helping him politically, uncovered more conduct that could be criminal. Just Security published an invaluable compendium written by eminent legal experts who argued that Trump might have broken federal campaign finance laws and bribery laws with the Ukraine scam. Then there all the financial crimes Trump might be hiding by refusing to release his tax returns and other financial documents.
The question is: Who will investigate Trump’s potentially illegal conduct while in office — and prosecute him, if warranted, once he leaves it? We know it won’t be Attorney General William P. Barr, Trump’s accomplice in perverting the Constitution. That means it will be up to Joe Biden, assuming he wins in November. In the past, I would have argued for leaving Trump alone after he steps down so as to end our “long national nightmare.” But now I am convinced that Trump’s wrongdoing is so pervasive and brazen that he must be prosecuted to uphold the rule of law and deter even greater lawbreaking by future presidents. If elected, President Biden should appoint a special counsel of unimpeachable integrity with a wide-ranging mandate to investigate Trump and his administration. Trump could try to short-circuit justice by trying to pardon himself before he leaves office — or even by resigning a few hours early and having Vice President Pence sworn in to issue a pardon (as President Gerald Ford did for Richard Nixon). In that case, the special counsel would be limited to investigating Trump’s accomplices. But the special counsel should still issue a comprehensive report on Trump’s lawbreaking. We must expose and root out this ethical rot before it eats away at the foundations of our democracy.