Why right now? Why did the FBI execute a search warrant on Monday at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence? The documents were removed from the White House.
It is possible that a charge related to official documents could serve as the basis for a satisfactory resolution of the pox on the country that is Donald Trump.
The answer to why the warrant was served is that evidence of a crime would be found at Trump's home.
The simple answer is just the beginning when the suspect is a former president.
The search of Mar-a-Lago is more dramatic than anything that happened during the Watergate scandal because it is against a former president.
The Justice Department and the FBI are aware of what they've done. It is certain that Atty.. Gen. Garland would have had to approve it.
Most of the people subject to federal warrants end up being charged with federal crimes. Trump and the government he used to lead are locked up in an arch-antagonistic posture because of Monday's warrant.
It might seem puzzling, even disappointing, that the Justice Department and the FBI would have chosen to throw down the gauntlet for a crime that is far from the most serious of those we think the former president is capable of.
Under the federal code, which provides for a prison sentence of up to three years, and not in the culture of the Justice Department, a charge of mishandling or destroying official documents is not a trivial offense.
The potential offense seems to be particularly brazen and damaging in Trump's case. The letter President Obama left for him when he took office is one of the historical items that he has refused to return.
Further, a documents charge, as presidential accusations go, would be relatively easy to prove and would sidestep issues of 1st Amendment protected political activity that Trump no doubt would claim if he were indicted in relation to, say, his speech at the Ellipse.
Anyone who hides, removes, obliterates, or destroys official documents will be barred from holding future federal office for the rest of their lives.
If Trump were found guilty of this charge, the plain meaning of the law would take him out of commission as a candidate for president, and all talk of his 2024 candidacy would be dead. The possibility of another Trump presidency raises a lot of support and partisan feelings.
It's possible Garland has hit on a grand resolution of the huge political, cultural and legal problem that Trump has caused, but there is a possible constitutional challenge to the provision.
The department could agree to a modest jail sentence, or perhaps none at all, and decline to pursue other charges in exchange for Trump agreeing to not challenge the disqualification provision.
They would be frustrated if they wanted to see Trump in an orange jumpsuit without his fake tan. The former president didn't emerge as a powerful martyr.
Trump would be made to pay for it. The most dangerous part of his defiance of the rule of law would be removed if he were exiled from office. To adapt the words of President Ford when he pardoned Nixon, Monday's Mar-a-Lago search could well be the beginning of a fitting and broadly accepted end to our nightmare.
There is a person named Harry litman.
The story was originally published in the LA Times.
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