Trump Must Go to Jail If Convicted

Former President Donald Trump has now been indicted for a fourth time, the most recent a 41-count indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, tied to his attempts to (in the words of the indictment’s introduction) “knowingly and willfully [join] a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome” of the 2020 election—a free and fair election that he lost.

The twice-impeached former president deserves due process, of course. He must have fair trials in each of the jurisdictions in which he is under indictment. But if he is convicted of any crime that would send an ordinary citizen to jail, he must serve time. That is true whether it is part of the mandatory minimum associated with the Georgia RICO statute, or the sentences that may be handed down in any of the other cases in which he is a defendant.

Just as hundreds of insurrectionists who answered his call to attack the Capitol are serving time, so should he be. Just as anyone else who stole national security documents from the federal government and then obstructed justice time and time again to hang on to them would be incarcerated for years, so should he be. Just as Michael Cohen or Reality Winner went to jail, so should former President Donald Trump. It is not enough for him to be found guilty and then to sit poolside at Mar-a-Lago wearing an ankle bracelet.

Read more at The Daily Beast.