Legal accountability for the Trump-Pence Administration

There will be plenty of issues for the Biden-Harris Administration to deal with, obviously.

But one of the top priorities - I would say for the rule of law as such, the highest priority - to have a thorough, independent legal review of actions during the Bush-Pence Administration and prosecute crimes where there is solid legal reason to do so.

That's how the rule of law is supposed to work. It's critically important that the next Attorney General make sure that happens.

And, yes, that should include a serious investigation of crimes committed in pursuit of Trump's clown coup attempt since the election.

Greg Sargent wrote about the legal accountability issue this past August in If Biden wins, the post-Trump corruption purge will have to be epic Washington Post 08/05/2020. Most of his column reports on a report from the left-center but thoroughly Democratic-establishment Center for American Progress (CAP), whose president is Neera Tanden.

Sargent also adds this suggestion, "Yet another area — not discussed in the CAP report — would entail new legislative safeguards against the sort of relentless financial self-dealing that Trump engaged in. A model is Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) blueprint requiring the IRS to release presidential candidates’ tax returns."

The CAP report is authored by Sam Berger, How a Future President Can Hold the Trump Administration Accountable 08/06/2020. And it states, "the lesson from the past four years is clear: The absence of accountability is treated as license to escalate abuses of power."

Yes, Presidents and their administrations have to be held accountable to the law.

But this is not just an idea or an ideal or a principle. It's the duty of the Justice Department to enforce the law. As the CAP report also says:

It is critical for leaders to make clear now that those who break the law will face accountability in the future. Ignoring the Trump administration’s attacks on the rule of law will only invite further attacks - and likely even more brazen and threatening ones. The Trump administration’s efforts to undermine U.S. democracy have greatly escalated—with the administration politicizing the deployment of federal law enforcement and casting doubt on the legitimacy of electoral processes - and are likely to grow in intensity unless it is clear that there will be accountability for wrongdoing. [my emphasis]

It matters. It really, really matters.