As we’ve noted before, George Conway is one of the most powerful attorneys in Washington DC. He is also a highly influential member of The Federalist Society, which would normally make him a formidable foe to our political beliefs. However, as everyone knows, Conway never tolerated Trump and remains a giant thorn in Trump’s brain. We support any effort to hold Trump accountable.

Today, the WaPo published Conway’s outline for the DOJ to follow in prosecuting Trump and putting him behind bars. It is compelling.

It will also be ugly and we’ll give you a little slice. Start here:

“With Trump, there’s so much to investigate criminally that one special counsel can’t do it all,” wrote Conway. “Could you imagine one prosecutor in charge of addressing Trump’s finances and taxes, his hush-money payments, obstruction of the Mueller investigation, the Ukraine scandal, and post-election misconduct, for starters? It would be an impossible task for one team. One special counsel’s office couldn’t do it all, not in any reasonable amount of time, and it’s important for prosecutors to finish their work as quickly as possible. Three or four special counsels are needed. Under the regulations, each would be accountable to the attorney general.”

Sure, all of it makes sense. Our only reluctance is the MAGA payback. It doesn’t take genius insight to note that if Garland’s DOJ appoints three special prosecutors to look into Trump, the next MAGA president will appoint nine, if they appoint four, we’ll get sixteen in return. The MAGAs will square everything done to them. That still should not stop the DOJ. The MAGAs are counting upon intimidation. Bring it on.

We have written many times that we don’t believe the Russian matter was sufficiently investigated, never mind litigated, and neither does Conway. Other than the insurrection on the Capitol, the Russian matter remains the single most dangerous element of the Trump presidency. Trump would not cross Russia, period. We must find out why and Conway has a good place to start:

Trump, having stonewalled Mueller’s requests for an interview, provided written testimony denying he had spoken with his longtime friend Roger Stone, or anyone else, about the trove of Democratic emails that Russia stole and WikiLeaks released in 2016. The Senate Intelligence Committee found those denials to be false, and concluded “that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks” — “on multiple occasions.”

Yes, and it’s not just the lie itself, which is perjury, it is even more about the substance within those lies. How did they know about Wikileaks? Did they know the Russians were involved? If they knew the Russians were involved, how did they know? All that.

Additionally, Conway notes that Trump’s finances, including possible bank fraud and conflicts of interest, needs investigation, just as they are doing in New York. Bank fraud is a federal crime. It is also a crime that could, in our opinion, most easily lead right back to Russia. Someone backed those Deustche Bank loans and we doubt it was the human bankruptcy machine, Trump.

We have reservations about prosecuting a president. There are strong and legitimate arguments to do nothing more than let history be the judge. But we are all on the same page are now. Any fraction of consideration Trump might have gotten as an ex-president went out the door in January:

But if there could be any doubt about whether Trump can be given a pass without the rule of law paying too high a price, that ended in the ugly final weeks of Trump’s presidency. His attempts to reverse a free and fair election — by any means he saw necessary, including by fomenting violence — have not only undermined the rule of law but also threatened to destroy it altogether. No other president has ever done that, or attempted to do that, or probably even thought of doing that.

Exactly. Trump swore an oath to defend the Constitution. He ended up trying to burn it or beat it to death. He attempted to install himself as the fascist dictator he always wanted to be. If we don’t prosecute presidents that incite an attempted-coups then there’s not much hope for the rule of law anyway.

Merrick Garland, lead the way, because Biden isn’t going to tell you what to do.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak