“I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison”

Nancy Pelosi’s latest logic, at least according to the linked article, is that Trump will go to prison if defeated in 2020, so she would rather defeat him in an election than impeach him.

Maybe she really said that. Maybe she didn’t.

There is some logic to that strategy. Cohen has already gone to jail for an act Trump asked him to do, and their conversation is on tape, so there’s a pretty clean case against him. The strategy does not pay off, however, if Trump wins re-election. He would be unlikely to face justice in that case because he is much more likely to die in office between 2020 and 2024 that he would be to face criminal charges in 2025. After all, in 2024 he will be a 78-year-old fat man. There are not a lot of those in the world.

If I were advising Pelosi, I would advise her to open an impeachment investigation, but slow-walk the hell out of it. Do not move it into the Senate, where Trump would get “cleared,” before the 2020 election. Just drag it out, and time all the worst revelations to occur during the election campaign. That would leave Trump trying to run for office as he is being investigated. The trick is for the House to run an impeachment investigation without ever bringing the charges, thus never allowing Trump to get cleared by the Senate.

Starting that investigation would also mollify the members of the Democratic left wing, who have been restively clamoring for just that.

Furthermore, Madam Speaker, do not publicly admit that is your strategy. You just say everything must be duly considered, and that process takes time. It will be easy enough to slow-walk it, because Trump will presumably continue to stonewall the evidence – thus slowing down the process and sealing his own doom. You leave Trump pinned in an unwinnable dilemma – if he gives up the damning evidence to speed up the investigation, he’s screwed – if he does not give up the evidence, the investigation continues throughout the presidential election, with uglier headlines and more obstruction charges every day.

Once the 2020 election is complete:

  • If Trump wins, finally bring the charges, especially if he loses the Senate.
  • If Trump loses, drop the investigation and let the criminal investigators handle it. There’s no point in impeaching a lame duck.

Sure, running an impeachment investigation without ever intending to conclude it before the election is a dirty trick. That’s what politics is all about. That’s exactly what Mitch McConnell would do in her shoes. Ask Merrick Garland. If you want to beat ol’ Mitch, play by the same rules.

An impeachment investigation also has the additional bonus of overriding “executive privilege.” If Trump comes up with excuses to withhold evidence while he is being formally investigated, that per se would be another instance of obstruction. Every time he comes up with an excuse to hide evidence – tack on another count!

18 thoughts on ““I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison”

  1. The whole point of impeachment is not to remove from office. It’s just to get all the evidence out. Impeachment ends Trump’s executive privilege. This very very transparent administration will have to cough up. Once it becomes obvious what a criminal enterprise (or, if you’re Harry, what a civic-minded knitting circle) it is, the Senate will either unambiguously become part of it, or vote to convict.

  2. Not a bad idea but remember that it takes 2/3 of the Senate to convict. There’s no way the Dems win that large a majority, so it will still take a good number of Republicans to go along. Harry B seems to have missed the part about Cohen, as well as the obstruction of justice charges, and the very likely bank fraud charges.

  3. And yet not one of you idiot lefties have conclusive evidence of any crime by Trump. I really enjoyed this page when it was fun stuff and titties, I can get this bullshit anywhere.
    FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU! Is that how you do it? Scream nonsense at the top of your lungs. FUCK OFF

    1. Lol u mad snowflake?

      Triggered conservatives with their persecution complex. For all their complaints about liberals, they’re the ones constantly crying like pussies in every comment section on the internet

    2. “Michael Cohen got three years in prison Wednesday for his role in what the judge called “a smorgasbord” of crimes, including hush money payments that violated campaign finance rules. But the most consequential development from the hearing had to do with a person who was not even in the courtroom: Donald Trump.

      In sentencing the president’s former fixer, federal judge William H. Pauley III said in open court that Trump had directed his then-lawyer to commit a federal felony.” – Did Trump Just Move a Step Closer to Unidicted Co-conspirator?

    3. The fact that nobody had been able to prove a crime against Trump is a Fox News talking point, but is not factually correct. Actually, there is extremely conclusive evidence:

      • Cohen confessed to, and was convicted of, violating election laws.
      • He was ordered to do so by Trump, making Trump guilty of the same crime.
      • Cohen taped the conversation in which Trump ordered the payment. We have all heard it.

      Had Trump lost the election, he would have been part of that same prosecution.

      To be fair to Trump, an illegal campaign contribution of $150,000 is a relatively minor crime, and it would probably be possible to find some vaguely comparable violation of election laws by anyone who has ever run for President. (OK, maybe not Jimmy Carter.)

      1. “Had Trump lost the election, he would have been part of that same prosecution.”

        Had Trump lost the election that prosecution would never have happened. We’d be seeing all the feebles and foibles of… Jeb Bush, maybe…

        Guaranteed if Hillary had won the Dems would have nothing but outright praise for our electoral system ESPECIALLY the Electoral College because of how well it works.

    4. Yes, you are very good at shouting nonsense at the top of your lungs, Harry B. Congratulations, I guess.

      BTW, this is what you down to? Tell me, what do you think you would be saying if Barack Obama had done exactly what Trump has done after he was inaugurated? If he had the same business dealings before the election, and the same connections with Russia before and after? But since it’s YOUR guy, why, it’s peachy keen! Well, maybe knowing that Putin loves you helps you sleep at night.

  4. Has she not read the Mueller Report either? “24 Op. O.L.C. at 255 (‘Recognizing an immunity from prosecution for a sitting President would not preclude such prosecution once the President’s term is over or he is otherwise removed from office by resignation or impeachment.’).”

    1. There is no chance to remove him from office by the impeachment process (which requires 67 votes in the Senate), so the only way to get him out of office, and thus subject to criminal justice, is through an election.

  5. The problem with this is that The U.S House ends its session around September or sometime around there in order to campaign.

    1. Pelosi would be in control of that. She can make the call at the time. The House is not obligated to adjourn if important business is before it, and one might argue that to do so would be a dereliction of its duty.

      Complications might occur if the Senate wants to adjourn. (Article I, Section 5, Clause 4 and Article II, Section 3, Clause 1)

      1. The entire House or just the committee holding hearings on impeachment? There would probably be a revolt on the Democratic side against Pelosi if she tried to keep the entire House in session from September on.

        1. I think they can keep a session going with a skeleton crew, as they did last week, when those two guys managed to block legislation.

  6. Great idea if the world hadn’t shifted into the worst dimension when that weasel got into the supercollider.

    The Trumpites only care that he “sticks it to the libtards”. They get most energized when he is under attack, because they just want to see the left angry.

    Attempting to impeach now is terrible strategy for this reason. It will energize his base. What’s more, there’s already a full court press to get the evangelicals to the polls with these nonsense abortion laws.

    Evangelicals elected trump. Period. They did so because of more than a decade of programming that Hillary was literally the devil who would bring about a Christian apocalypse where Christians would be all but hunted down by roving bands of militant lesbians.

    2020? No Hillary. And no time spent demonizing any other dem candidate (other than the generic terror of the word “socialist” that makes Bernie a boogieman). What’s more, evangelicals are starting to tire of cheeto von Tweeto’s shenanigans, as he’s done a piss poor job fulfilling campaign promises and is hurting tons of people with his trade war tarriffs.

    What to do?

    Wall to wall abortion laws raise the ears of every evangelical litmus test voter. Trump backs them openly during the campaign. They get sued (because duh) and the gop swears it’s an attack on babies.

    If they try to impeach trump, he’ll claim that it’s over his support of the abortion laws. The gop makes the entire election about abortion, as they hope the dwindling Trumpite ranks and litmus test evangelicals will be enough to squeak out a victory.

    No impeachment? It’s a win/win.

    Trump loses? He goes bye bye.
    Trump wins? They impeach as soon as the solidly blue house and senate take office, and he goes bye bye.

    1. Remember it how you want, but so called evangelicals didn’t elect trump. Sure they voted for him, just like they voted for every other Republican candidate before him. Trump got elected by voters in the flipped states like Michigan. People who voted for Barack Obama. Forgetting that doesn’t help you.

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