Will Trump Face Arrest As Joe Biden Is Sworn In As President?
JakeThomas
The Independent’s Washington Bureau Chief John T. Bennett imagined on Friday a scenario in which President Trump is met with immediate legal trouble upon Joe Biden’s swearing in and Trump’s return to civilian life.
- Bennett wondered: “Does such a scenario seem too dramatic, too much the stuff of political thriller novels or B-rate films? Possibly. But this is the Trump era. And that means nothing is too outlandish or even off-limits.”
- “There are at least 12 federal and state investigations into Trump, his 2016 campaign and his business dealings, according to a list compiled by the New York Times,” Bennett wrote.
That includes possible hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and others; whether the Trump team offered a pardon to his former “fixer” and personal attorney Michael Cohen; alleged insurance claim inflation; other potentially illegal insurance frauds; misused charitable trusts; various campaign finance violations; and self-dealing within The Trump Organization, a.k.a the family business.
- There is also the issue of Trump’s taxes.
- “Federal investigators also seem keen to speak with the President about a slew of matters related to his, to put it diplomatically, murky tax situation,” Bennett noted.
- “When you have watched the Trump operation up close for a half-decade...there are similarities to organizations that operate, shall we say, at the margins of rules and laws,” Bennett wrote.
Fictional television mob boss Tony Soprano once said, “If you can quote the rules, then you can obey them.” This president never quite quotes them, instead stating his interpretation of them and trying to shape others’ perceptions of how he has twisted and pressed them to their breaking points.
The head of the Soprano organization also uttered this memorable diatribe: “All due respect, you got no f***in’ idea what it’s like to be Number One. Every decision you make affects every facet of every other f***in’ thing. It’s too much to deal with almost. And in the end, you’re completely alone with it all.”
- That Trump could face legal consequences after leaving office is not too far-fetched.
- Bennett observed: “Donald John Trump has made countless consequential – and highly questionable – decisions in his private and presidential dealings, ones that have triggered the legal system’s scrutiny over and over and over.”
He may very soon be alone with it all.
