It would be a turnabout of the “Lock him up!” chants regularly directed at Biden by Trump’s supporters at campaign rallies.
Although Biden has said that prosecuting a former president would be a “very unusual thing and probably not very good for democracy,” he also vowed in an NPR interview in August that he wouldn’t “interfere with the Justice Department’s judgment of whether or not they think they should pursue the prosecution of anyone that they think has violated the law.”
With Republicans likely to retain control of the Senate, Biden’s nominee for attorney general will be sure to face tough questioning during confirmation hearings about the new administration’s intentions toward Trump. And Republican-led committees could strike back by amping up the investigations of Biden and his family’s finances that they’d already begun.
It’s a real question because on Jan. 20 Trump will lose the immunity from federal criminal indictment that sitting presidents are granted under Justice Department policy. Prosecutors could revive the investigation into campaign-finance violations that resulted in a three-year sentence for Trump’s former lawyer and fixer
Democratic lawmakers who led congressional investigations of Trump and backed his impeachment have long vowed to press on once he was out of office. Among them: Senator
Now, though, she’s echoing Biden’s formulation, saying last month on ABC’s “The View” that the Justice Department’s leaders will make the decision based on the evidence and “without any interference from the White House -- period.”
Before the election, Trump publicly prodded Attorney General
But that doesn’t mean prosecutors won’t take broader considerations into account on their own. A Biden-nominated attorney general would probably be wary of distracting from other policy goals or setting a dangerous precedent.
“Do we want to be the kind of country that every time someone leaves office their successor charges them for crimes?” said
Democratic Representative
Still, some Democrats argue that not pursuing a criminal investigation of Trump would amount to special treatment that no ordinary citizen would receive. “Either we are a nation of laws or we are not,” said Representative
Representative
“No one wants to give the perception of being vindictive,” Quigley said. “But, you know, I think there’s genuine concern with ongoing criminal activities. So, at the very least those should be looked at.”
Senator
But Republican lawmakers, conservative media figures and many of the voters who supported the president would see a prosecution of Trump as a political attack, just as they viewed the Mueller probe and the House impeachment effort before it.
‘Sham Investigations’
Representative
“Democrats for the past four years have wasted time and taxpayer dollars on sham investigations,” Comer said. “It’s past time for Democrats to put Americans and country first instead of playing politics and wasting time on fake crises.”
The closest historical parallel to the choice facing the Biden administration is President
As a freshman senator, Biden -- who has said he wouldn’t pardon Trump -- urged caution in the rush to impeach Nixon. Instead, Nixon resigned to avert an impeachment vote.
Manhattan Investigation
An ongoing investigation into Trump and his business by Manhattan District Attorney
“There may be less of an interest if you know that, let’s say, New York has brought a criminal case,” Weissmann said. “That will be an important factor.”
A state-level prosecution would also be impervious to any last-minute deployment of presidential pardon power, which applies only to federal cases. Trump has previously suggested he could pardon himself, an act that might actually spur prosecutors to pursue a case against him in order to challenge its constitutionality.
Some liberal academics and former government officials have proposed another alternative to a federal criminal investigation: a bipartisan fact-finding panel, often described as a “truth and reconciliation committee,” that would focus on documenting any abuses that may have taken place during the Trump administration rather than recommending charges.
Tushnet, the Harvard law professor, said he sees such a panel as a middle path between prosecuting Trump and granting him impunity -- a way to hold the previous administration accountable without creating a partisan firestorm.
“We need to get back to normal,” Tushnet said. “The question is, ‘What’s the best way?’”
--With assistance from
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Anthony Lin, Larry Liebert
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