Should Trump Be Criminally Prosecuted? Opposing Considerations

I have a knowledgeable friend who believes that it would be unwise to prosecute Trump, because it might initiate a pattern in which each new president feels free to prosecute whomever he succeeds, a classic feature of banana republics. If the Justice Department in the Biden administration prosecutes Trump, it would indeed raise an outcry on the part of MAGA-type Republicans and propagandistic right-wing media personalities and increase the chances that, if the Republicans regain power, they will push for revenge prosecution of Biden. The trouble with my friend’s argument is that these considerations pale in comparison to the the principle that no person, even a president or former president of the United States, especially a president or former president of the United States, is above the law.