Fearing jail and facing defeat, Trump will not leave office quietly
Trump says that he might not leave peacefully...
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The presidency of Donald John Trump is collapsing. Unwilling or unable to confront the deadly realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 138,000 American lives, the president's job-approval ratings have plummeted. The ravages of the virus, in turn, have triggered a deep economic slump, pushing unemployment rates to levels not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. There is a growing perception that our 45th commander in chief, never known for his intellectual acuity or moral rectitude, is unfit to lead the nation in this moment of extreme crisis.
Even the Supreme Court, with two of his own appointees on the bench, has seemingly turned against him. On the last day of its just-completed 2019-2020 term, the court released a pair of landmark decisions on presidential power, rejecting Trump's desperate attempt to quash subpoenas issued by Congress and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance for his tax returns and personal financial records. Writing for a 7-2 majority in both cases, Chief Justice John Roberts rebuffed Trump's claims of sweeping presidential immunity and reaffirmed the bedrock principle that no one—including the president—is above the law.
According to many polls, if the election were held today, Trump would lose in a classic landslide. If the pundits are correct, the entire Republican Party could be dragged down with him.
Trump's abiding corruption and incompetence have prompted urgent calls for his resignation by newspaper editorial boards, columnists and activists like Ralph Nader. Even before his stunning setbacks in the Supreme Court, there was considerable and widespreadspeculation that rather than face humiliation in November, Trump will step down in the fashion of Richard Nixon, or announce a la Lyndon Johnson that he won't seek reelection after all.
As the veteran commentator Robert Kuttner mused in a recent article in the American Prospect:
"If Trump senses a blowout defeat well beyond the usual Republican margin of theft, [he] may decide that it's more dignified to retire undefeated. He can claim that the election was rigged, that he would have won, blah blah blah, and he can have the satisfaction of agitating his base as president-in-exile with no responsibility whatever for the consequences."
Regrettably, I have to demur. Trump will never voluntarily stand aside. Trump will lie, cheat and steal to retain the presidency by any means necessary, and he'll do so for one simple reason—once he is out of office, he could be prosecuted for a trove of federal and state felonies, and, if convicted, sent to prison.
If he loses the election, Trump could be targeted by a new Democratic attorney general determined to hold him accountable for a laundry list of possible federal offenses, including:
- Obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation conducted by former special counsel Robert Mueller into suspected Russian interference in the 2016 election.
- Obstruction of Congress,extortion and bribery in connection with his efforts to pressure Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up political dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the release of U.S. military aid previously approved by Congress.
- Income tax and financial fraud for underreporting the revenue earned from his real-estate ventures, and misrepresenting the value of his assets, as alleged by the New York Times in a lengthy 2018 expose.
- Violation of campaign finance laws for conspiring with his former lawyer Michael Cohen to pay hush money to pornographic film star Stephanie Clifford, aka "Stormy Daniels," and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in the run-up to the 2016 election. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to the Daniels and McDougal payoffs. The complaint lodged against Cohen treated Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator, referring to him as "Individual 1" in keeping with Justice Department practices, and alleging that he directed Cohen to make the money transfers.
A particularly aggressive attorney general could also charge Trump with involuntary manslaughter for contributing to the staggering COVID-19 death toll. Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, now a legal analyst with NBC and MSNBC, made the case for involuntary manslaughter in an April interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan on the Intercept's "Deconstructed" podcast.
"There are three things, what we call elements… that we have to prove in order to hold somebody accountable for involuntary manslaughter," Kirschner explained. "One, that a person acted in a grossly negligent way or importantly for our purposes, failed to act and that failure was a product of gross negligence… Number two, their conduct was reasonably likely to involve serious bodily injury or death to another as a product of that grossly negligent act or failure to act. And three, that they thereby caused the death of another." Kirschner argued that Trump's record on COVID-19 satisfies all three elements for criminal liability.
At the state level, in the aftermath of his resounding loss in the Supreme Court, Trump faces a more immediate and practical threat of prosecution in New York, where District Attorney Vance has pledged to "follow the law and the facts, wherever they may lead." Vance has resumed a grand jury probe to determine if the Daniels and McDougal payoffs, or any other aspect of Trump's financial dealings, violated state fraud and tax laws. Federal District Court Judge Victor Marrero, who sits in Manhattan, has set an expedited briefing schedule to hear any remaining arguments from Trump's attorneys to limit the scope of the financial-records subpoena that Vance originally issued to Trump's accounting firm in August 2019.
Although it's unlikely that Vance would seek an indictment before the election, if he did, Trump would not be shielded by the Justice Department's longstanding policy against the prosecution of sitting presidents for federal crimes. The policy, which dates back to Nixon and Watergate, does not apply to the states. For purposes of charging criminal offenses, as the Supreme Court confirmed in 2019, the states and the federal government are considered separate sovereign entities.
After the election, if he loses at the polls, Trump would also lose his federal protections against prosecution once a new administration takes over in January 2021. In the interim, left with precious few options to avoid his day of legal reckoning, he could swallow his pride, abruptly change course and resign, hoping that Mike Pence, as his lame-duck successor, would rescue him with a preemptive pardon, much as Gerald Ford issued to Nixon.
But the federal pardon power does not extend to state prosecutions, and a dispensation of mercy from Pence would do nothing to relieve Trump of continuing jeopardy in New York.
Alternatively, Trump could choose to serve out the remainder of his term and pursue a strategy of delay to prolong any criminal investigations of his conduct until after the applicable statutes of limitations for his alleged crimes have expired. Under both federal and New York law, most felony prosecutions must commence within five years of the commission of an offense.
And then there is a final Trumpian option that no one should discount: In an ultimate act of destruction aimed at saving his own skin, Trump could simply refuse to leave the White House, claiming that the election results are fraudulent.
As Michael Cohen warned in his February 2019 testimony before Congress, "[G]iven my experience working for Mr. Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power." Several mainstream observers have voiced similar concerns.
As ridiculous as it may seem to picture Trump clinging to the "Resolute Desk" in the Oval Office as federal marshals come to remove him, just remember how ridiculous his presidential campaign appeared when he descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy in June 2015.
In the Age of Trump, no depravities are beyond the realm of possibility. We need to be prepared for anything and everything.
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Trump can always be hauled off kickin-n-screamin...
Someone I work with thinks this is tRumps' way (the goons/thugs beating the shit out of/kidnapping off the street, peaceful protesters) of instituting martial law so that his big fat sloppy incompetent bumbling moron ass won't be kicked to the curb when Joe Biden wins in a landslide.
Why, La La Land, where unicorns poop rainbows and money grows on trees, and there are no police!
It's happening in many places, Portland Oregon for beginners . . . .
Two words for you, pardner: Jade Helm
I bet you were locked and loaded...
"So you're talking about antifa and blm."
No, I am not.
It's tRump's thugs/goons/gestapo who are doing this.
Not Anti-Fa, not BLM
Hope you are really rich because the bets you seem wiling to make are losers.
Yes, they are
Now the scumbag 'president' is sending these goons/thugs to Chicago. Calling it Operation Legend. What a POS.
The left's definition of "peaceful protester" sucks.
Peaceful does not include rioting, looting, arson, vandalism, destruction of federal or private property, assault, murder, taking over 8 square blocks in Seattle, or blocking highways every night for months.
The left's Brown Shirts need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If their enabler Democrat governors and mayors won't do their damn jobs- then the federal government will. The rest of us shouldn't have to pay the destruction caused by your (plural) Brown Shirts.
The 'rights'everything is toxic and deplorable.
I'm sticking with what I said last year. If Trump loses, he will resign and have Pence pardon him for everything he can think of, all the while pulling the victim card. "I didn't lose, the election was rigged", bullshit.
Trump is impeached or quits
Pence becomes POTUS
Pence pardons Trump (if needed)
Pence appoints Trump VPOTUS
Pence resigns
Trump becomes POTUS
Trump appoints Pence as VPOTUS
Interesting theory. Not sure it would work in the real world though.
For one thing:
United States, a pardon "carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it." Associate Justice McKenna was referring to cases in the denial of a pardon. ... If a president thinks an individual is innocent and issues a pardon, then accepting a pardon would not mean the individual is guilty.
Trump would be a felon for all counts that he was pardoned for. Can felons be POTUS?
For another:
Pence as POTUS would allow him to move forward on trying to turn the country into some type of theocracy. Restoring Trump to POTUS would stop that plan.
Mike Pence's not-so-secret plan: "He's focused on the White House" — but how soon?
[Deleted]
It looks like some of them frequent these pages.
A lot of maybes, and what ifs, and could, and possibles, but no facts.
Idiots doing the same thing they did last election.
Remember when Trump "wouldn't accept the results of the election", and how Democrats cried and bitched and whined for months about it?
Now they are pulling the same old tired bullshit.
It is rather amusing that they haven't even got a new playbook!
Actually seems that Trump is using his same playbook. When he loses the 2020 election he will step aside or the pitchforks and torches WILL come out.
Bullshit.
Bunch of dumbass yahoos went down this road in 2016.
What happened? Only the dumbfucks wouldn't accept the results of the election!
remember "NOT MY PRESIDENT", screaming at the sky, etc?
Looks like the yahoos project way too much.
I dont know how many fricking thousands of times you have to be told that Trump is not fit for the office of president of the United States, but having to do it every day is annoying as hell.
I DON'T CARE that you voted for him and he won the electoral college. Winning the election did not magically confer upon him fitness for office. People told you that if you elected a KNOWN liar, crook, bigot, moron and cheat to the presidency of the United States that he would be "resisted" every day he was in office. And it has happened. You have only yourself to blame.
you are lacking the clout required to change opinions.
So fucking STOP already. Trust me, no one is asking you to lead the
"I Hate Trump" campaign.
And I don't care what the fuck you think of him as YOUR President. Your OPINION doesn't now and never will change facts.
All the whining in the last 4 years hasn't changed the FACTS.
Trump is YOUR President, and when you wake up tomorrow, he will STILL be YOUR President. And your opinion won't be changing THAT!
Amazing to me that a grown person just can't accept facts.
not a chance.
biden is not going to win
Your loyalty is noted. Even in the face of such narrow odds you refuse to accept that the odds are stacked against your candidate. Some might see that as praiseworthy, if it were for a worthy cause. However, giving up on rational thinking for such a demonstrable loser and poor excuse for a human being can only be seen as moronic at best, masochistic at worst.
I think its more like the fact that some people are too blind to see the truth and too deep into the Trump personality cult.
If people absolutely refuse to face reality there is not much I can do. If they were a relative perhaps I could have them committed to a long term mental health facility, but that is not the case on a "free speech" forum.
History is going to be so unkind to Trump supporters. I hope the weeping and gnashing of teeth can be kept down to a manageable amount but I have my doubts.
And yet, you persist. Quite quixotic of you.
I wouldn't be giving my family ideas if I were you.
Hell, buck up, my boy! We have had to listen ad nauseum to wailing, screeching, screaming, whining, crying, and general bitching every fucking day for over 4 years now. I have no doubt that the mature adults (read that as Republicans) can stand to lose an election without claiming that the fucking world is about to end, without screaming at the sky, without newscasters openly crying because their favored candidate lost, without crying about an election that saw a President elected like every other fucking President.
you learned nothing in 2016 huh?
biden has much less of a chance at beating trump than hillary did.
and true to form, the lefts bs remains "exactly" the same as 2016.
all the left has to do to win in nov? burn another city or two.... LOL
You know what you should, John? Just ignore the ignorance and pretend it's just gnats buzzing in your ear. Gnats can be swatted away.
Don't forget the referendum of 2018. There is no doubt that will extend into 2020.
Positive thinking is all well and good, but in this case it will prove futile.
They are called midterm elections. Went about as expected. So what?
Yeah, there was no doubt in 2008 about the midterms of 2010, either. Remember how ya'll were going to "fundamentally change America"?
OK I will bite
tell me what has changed in polling since 2016
what did they do to fix the polling methods?
I don't trust the science... LOL
Haven't you ever wondered why not many people respond to you?
there is a definite odor of psychotropics around this place... LOL
What psychotropics are you taking?
none. only sick people take medication, I'm not sick. I don't even need aspirin
Because they don't like me?
winners usually stick to what made them winners
nope. another bad guess
Dodger Blue!
what does my favorite team have to do with the conversation?
yeah I'm a real frontrunner, been a Dodger fan since 1966
I'll be watching at 9 tonight for sure
when I lived in Merced, we would drive down to LA and try to catch the Dodgers on Friday and Saturday and the Angel's on Sunday. we would also drive over to SF and do the same with giants and athletics. been to 16 mbl parks
Don't forget that some are paid not to see the truth, and to obfuscate it as much as possible for others.
BREAKING NEWS:
Pot given 18 month sentence for calling the kettle black. Updates as they happen. Film at 11:00
nice!.
I have been to
Detroit. old and new
Fenway
KC
Astrodome and minutemaid
rangers old and new ( not the newest one yet)
candlestick and Alameda county
San Diego
LA and Anaheim
washington DC, think it was called Griffith or something like it,
philly
Tampa bay
Not to mention some that periodically show a distinct lack of understanding of the English language.
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Trump can get the same departure as did LTC Vidman, led out by armed guards.
Do you think a trail of cheeseburgers leading down to an armored police van disguised as a Good-Humor truck would get him?
Holding buckets of KFC . . . . . . .
Trump has nowhere to go. If he loses the election the only place that would grant him asylum is The House of Saud. I can't imagine Melania wearing a burqa, can you?
Of course if Trump manages to win re-election he will be able to solidify his personal protections through the courts for decades.
As I've said before, there IS a way...
This is the first I've seen that his middle name is "John". If he were to drop the Trump he could have correctly been known as "Don the John".