The twice-impeached former President of the United States was criminally indicted in New York yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0The actual indictment isn\u2019t publicly available yet, but it\u2019s seems clear the that Manhattan Grand Jury is charging multiple offenses, including felonies.\u00a0\u00a0We will know more when Mr. Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, sometime next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the first time a former President faces criminal charges. While other Presidents and former Presidents were scrutinized for their actions, none have actually been indicted (or indicated<\/em>, as the case may be). Former President Nixon was the closest, named as an \u201cunindicted co-conspirator\u201d in Watergate charges. But his successor, Gerald Ford, gave him a blanket pardon for \u201canything he might have done\u201d as President. So Nixon dodged the court, setting a precedent that we lived with until yesterday. As historian and author Michael Beschloss noted; the Nixon precedent opened the door for Donald Trump to do whatever he wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To tell the truth, Richard Nixon\u2019s resigning from office was a time of celebration for me.\u00a0\u00a0He committed crimes in office, and it was sad that he kept the country in turmoil for more than two years.\u00a0\u00a0But that turmoil ended with his \u201cvictory wave\u201d from the door of Marine One as he left the White House for the final time.\u00a0\u00a0For those of us who believed in equal justice before the law, we thought he should held accountable for his actions.\u00a0\u00a0Ford\u2019s pardon denied the nation that closure for Nixon\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is only the first of many indictments Trump faces.\u00a0\u00a0And there is no \u201csaving pardon\u201d likely here. Federal charges loom from the Department of Justice, both in the classified documents case and the January 6th<\/sup> Insurrection.\u00a0\u00a0But even if President Biden (or a future Republican President) decided to grant a pardon, both the Manhattan and Georgia charges are in state courts and not subject to Federal action.\u00a0\u00a0Our long national nightmare of Donald Trump is going to last for another couple of years.\u00a0\u00a0There is little joy there.\u00a0\u00a0But there should be some satisfaction:\u00a0\u00a0no man, even a twice-impeached former President, is above the law.\u00a0The Founding Fathers wrote that there would be no titles of nobility or privilege in the United States. The Constitution is fulfilled.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n No surprise that instead of accepting the Grand Jury actions, many Trump supporters, including a crying Senator Lindsey Graham, are screaming about \u201cinjustice\u201d. Injustice really would be if a Grand Jury found that, even though Trump might have committed crimes, he could not be held accountable. But the litany of \u201cregulars\u201d, from Mark Levin and Sean Hannity to Graham and Marjorie Taylor Greene \u201cscream foul\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More worrying is the statement by Republican Governor and Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.\u00a0\u00a0He basically offered Trump \u201csanctuary\u201d in Florida, stating as Governor he would refuse to recognize a New York request for extradition.\u00a0\u00a0That all sounds \u201cpowerful\u201d: the \u201cFree Florida\u201d acting as a sovereign state.\u00a0\u00a0But that clearly violates the US Constitution.\u00a0\u00a0Article IV, Section 2 states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/em>Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So while DeSantis could delay the inevitable, and force New York to go to Federal Court to enforce the Constitution \u2013 in the end, if Trump decides to hide in Florida, he would be \u201cdelivered up\u201d (Puerto Rico v Bransted 483 U.S. 219<\/em>). <\/em> And it would lead to US Marshals arresting a former President protected by a Secret Service detail, with all of the fuss that might create. As an acknowledged \u201cflight risk\u201d, Trump would then be held in confinement — Riker\u2019s Island? And they would have to accommodate the Secret Service detail as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So DeSantis got his \u201csound bite\u2019, and Trump will probably show up in Court next week.\u00a0\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0of concern is that a Presidential candidate was so quick to jump on a clear Constitutional violation. Looking at his actions violating the First Amendment in Florida already, DeSantis must not have been listening in Professor Tribe\u2019s Constitutional Law class at Harvard Law School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donald Trump put our nation in un-precedented times. Every action we take determines not only his fate, but what we expect from our future leaders. Ford took the \u201ceasy way out\u201d in 1974, avoiding the pain of a Nixon trial and possible incarceration. But by avoiding that pain, it set the stage for our current agony. There is only one correct path forward: allow justice to take its course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Privilege<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Constitution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Path Forward<\/h3>\n\n\n\n