He didn't resign until after the tapes came out.

click to read the fine print

And there weren't any state charges that could be brought. A federal pardon for Trump will be worth less than one of his promises.

@mcgeo52 Amen.

Preferably before he takes us down with him.

That's why it will come down to Robert Mueller, Barbara Underwood, and Cyrus Vance, Jr.

@mcgeo52 I still think a script writer looking for a good film noir name would be hard pressed to come up with a better one than Cyrus Vance, Jr for a DA.

@TheAstroChuck Right, the current batch of gop sneators are using the crisis to advance their big corporate and rich folks agenda.

Read my discussion with @Paul4747. His was the first comment on this post.

I don't remember who it was, but I heard someone refer to Trump as fifty fewer IQ points than Nixon and no sense of decency.

I thought that was kind of close but very generous to Trump.

@mcgeo52 overly generous!

@GreatNani, no argument here.

Hopefully tRump will do the same instead of calling for civil war and blood in the streets.

@mcgeo52 Nah, he'll be calling for war Godfather style. You saw his interview? It was like watching Gotti. (Who I believe he was friends with, in NY real estate.)

[washingtonpost.com]

This is the highlight as far as I'm concerned:

"People make up stories. This whole thing about flipping, they call it, I know all about flipping. For 30, 40 years I’ve been watching flippers. Everything’s wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they — they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go.

It — it almost ought to be outlawed. It’s not fair. Because if somebody’s going to give — spend five years like Michael Cohen or 10 years or 15 years in jail because of a taxi cab industry, because he defrauded some bank — the last two were the tiny ones. You know, campaign violations are considered not a big deal, frankly. But if somebody defrauded a bank and he’s going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail but if you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you’ll go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made.

In all fairness to him, most people are going to do that, and I’ve seen it many times. I’ve had many friends involved in this stuff. It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal."

That's a mob boss complaining. That's any Mafia don you care to name. Disgracefully, it's also currently the occupant of the Oval Office....

@Paul4747, I wonder why Trump sounds like a don? Could it have anything to do with the fact that his father was in NY real estate and had more than a couple of buildings built? Is it a total coincidence that Trump and Gotti graduated from the same private school; they were not classmates, but I wonder who else went there? Trump grew up in the mob. That is what he is.

But at his core, Trump is a scared little bully. Give him the following choice and see what happens:
• Behind door #1 is the NY AG and/or the Manhattan DA with a stack of RICO warrants and indictments. They will be issued by noon tomorrow and by close of business the following day every asset you had will have been seized or frozen. You will die penniless in Sing Sing.
• Behind door #2 is Robert Mueller with the following offer: You admit to federal felonies in a televised confession. You plead guilty and are fined a serious amount, but far from everything you own. You do a year in Club Fed and go home to a peaceful retirement.
• Behind door #3 is... Wait! There is NO door #3.

What's it gonna be, Donnie?

@mcgeo52 As I said, I believe he was friends with Gotti. If not, still plenty of others he worked with to get construction done on his casinos.

I don't know about a plea deal. Mueller has already said it's precedent we don't charge sitting Presidents. But maybe after an impeachment?

@Paul4747, find me the source on Muller saying it is precedent that we don't charge sitting Presidents. Go ahead. I'll wait.

The only source I've found was Rudy Giuliani saying that's what Mueller said. IF (note the full caps, not a typo) there is anyone at all on the entire planet less credible than tRump at this point, it would be Rudy Giuliani.

And if Mueller doesn't indict, it would be because of a DoJ position paper that I understand that he doesn't necessarily agree with. That paper only covers federal indictments.

There is a technical legal argument that the President cannot be prosecuted while in office because Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution says, "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." Prosecution is an act of the executive, and the President cannot prosecute himself. While the issue has never been decided by the Supreme Court, that is a fairly strong argument, but even then it only covers the prosecution of the case, not the indictment.

However, that argument only applies to federal charges. There is nothing preventing the prosecution of the President on state charges. The Manhattan DA and/or the NY AG could indict Trump and seize and/or freeze his assets tomorrow without violating the Constitution. If they did that, tRump would fold within 24 hours.

@Paul4747, I just realized that all of tRump's assets are in the trust managed by Jr. and Weisselberg.

The feds or the state can go after those assets under RICO. Per the technical argument above I doubt it would be a good idea to have the feds do it, but there is absolutely nothing stopping NY AG Barbara Underwood and/or Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. from seizing and/or freezing the assets.