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SanAndreasX on 04 October 2020
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JWeinCom said:
SanAndreasX said:

It wouldn't be impossible to press charges, but it would be a hell of a legal fight. And if Trump leaves office before January 20th, regardless of the election outcome, Pence becomes the acting President at least until then, and his first action as President will be to pardon Trump, which is what Ford did for Nixon when he became President.  Nixon would almost certainly have been convicted of obstruction of justice had Ford not done pardoned him, and most likely other actors associated with Nixon and Watergate, like Robert Bork, would have also been indicted. It's also interesting to note that the acceptance of a pardon is an admission of guilt under US law.

I don't think Trump will leave before the 20th, and probably not after. I'm also not sure Pence would pardon him or that he could. I don't think that would be a good look for the Republican party. But maybe he'd be loyal enough. I gotta say, Trump seems like the kind of guy that is tolerated while he's in power. If the election is lost, Pence is probably going down with the ship and may not be apt to help him.

You can apply a pardon for a presumptive case, but it might depend on how likely a charges are to occur. More importantly though, a president can only pardon for federal crimes. If someone were to say bring a charge of negligent manslaughter in New Jersey, that would be a state crime.

Pence would probably pardon him under the excuse that hauling a president of contested popularity into court would create civil unrest. Nixon was still popular among conservatives when he resigned, and Ford thought the country wouldn't hold together too well with the added stress of watching a former president go to trial in federal court. And Trump's base would eat it up.

That said, with regards to your second point, prosecutors in the state of New York would no doubt like to get their claws into Trump. He likely is looking at some heavy charges in New York. But Trump would actually have to be in New York before they could arrest or try him there. Trump would flee to Florida the first chance he got, and I can see DeSantis refusing to extradite him to New York out of pure spite, selling his refusal to Floridians and other conservatives around the country as standing up to the tyranny of an out of control blue state,  and to return favors bestowed upon Florida by Trump (i.e. Trump protecting Florida from offshore drilling while doing everything he can to force his hated California to open its territory to drilling).