The release of President Trump’s https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html?arc404=true&itid=lk_inline_manual_1 (phone call)to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has increased Trump’s potential criminal liability once he leaves office — as well as the chances that we will enter uncharted legal territory soon. The call provides at least a basis to investigate possible violations of federal law against election fraud. And unless the president plans to step down at the 11th hour of his term, allowing Vice President Pence to assume office and pardon him, he has only one option to shield himself from potential prosecution: a self-pardon.
But if Trump tries that, he will set in motion an endgame that may prove to be his own undoing.
He already faces criminal jeopardy on multiple fronts: The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York is in possession of evidence of a potential campaign finance violation that Trump may have committed before he became president. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III compiled evidence of multiple instances of obstruction of justice, outlined in https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/04/19/mueller-report-isnt-just-legal-document-its-also-best-nonfiction-book-trump-white-house-so-far/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4 (his 2019 report). And within the past few days, Trump’s actions have undoubtedly set in motion the preliminary stages of an https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/01/05/trump-call-raffensperger-crime/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4 (investigation of federal election crimes).
Until now, Trump has been protected from prosecution largely because of a 1973 Justice Department memorandum that prohibits indicting a sitting president. But as Mueller’s report noted, that policy presupposes that a future administration can proceed with prosecution. The memo rests on a determination that a criminal charge would unfairly burden a president and hinder him from executing his duties. These concerns, of course, are no longer salient after the president leaves office.
