# If Biden wins, should he aggressively prosecute the previous administration...including Trump? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 23, 2020, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212 "2020-06-23T03:06:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/81 "2020-06-28T03:54:26Z")
I understand the argument that we don’t want to start a precedent of new administrations going after the previous one. It’s before my time but it seems like Ford’s pardon of Nixon was the right call (slightly different circumstances but close enough). Trump, though, seems to be so corrupt that letting him get away with it also sets a bad precedent. Going after his political opponents (like with Ukraine) and protecting his cronies is Communist-level corrupt. Former members of his own cabinet claim he is a threat to the Constitution and yet he still has a chance to win the election in part because of his own interference. We need future presidents to know that if they try to illegally manipulate an election they will pay. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/82 "2020-06-28T07:00:51Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > > [@PlaceboTarget](#): > > > > The problem is we’ll be hearing Tweety and his supporters playing the martyr for the rest of our lives. > > Trump has violated Twitter’s terms of service with nearly every vile twit he’s made. Twitter has left him alone (mostly) on the grounds that his tweets are of “public interest”. Well, once he isn’t prez any more, I don’t see any further tweets from him being of “public interest”. The moment he makes one tweet that violates Twitter’s ToS, they should instaban him. There’s also the fact that Curt Schilling deactivated Twitter yesterday after he took some well-deserved heat for comparing Bubba Wilson to Jussie Smollett. So we don’t have to worry about the America-hating fuckstick’s tweets any more. Way to go Curt! Nobody really NEEDED Twitter to exist anyway. So, even though you’re a dumbass, you did a good thing by deactivating Twitter. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/83 "2020-06-28T07:15:26Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > That’s really not a precedent anybody wants to set. Do it once, and then it will happen every time a new party assumes power. That won’t benefit anyone. It would benefit EVERYONE if we ensure that whatever new party assumes power from now on is NOT the GOP. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/84 "2020-06-28T07:19:51Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > That’s a little rougher than I would say. But I want EVERY Republican voted out of office. Some, are I am sure good people. BUT ANYONE that supports this administration needs to go away. They need to re-invent themselves into something that is not a criminal mob. I’ve been saying that for years. Nice to see it’s finally catching on. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/85 "2020-06-28T07:29:28Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I understand the argument that we don’t want to start a precedent of new administrations going after the previous one. It’s before my time but it seems like Ford’s pardon of Nixon was the right call (slightly different circumstances but close enough). I understand there’s viable argumentation to be made on both sides of that assertion. I feel that the pardon came WAY too soon. If there was going to be a pardon, it should have been post-conviction, and granted the morning AFTER Nixon reported to prison to serve his sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/86 "2020-06-28T12:40:29Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > That’s really not a precedent anybody wants to set. Do it once, and then it will happen every time a new party assumes power. That won’t benefit anyone. Are you’re saying that Republicans would open bullshit investigations of Democratic presidents? Because welcome to our timeline. If you’re suggesting they’d open legitimate investigations, _I am all about that._ The person it benefits is every American who doesn’t hold political office. Trump has managed to twist and turn such that he’s immune from any consequences while he’s in office, thanks to his toadying supporters. The precedent he’s setting is appalling. If there’s no adequate response to it, as you say, “it will happen every time a new party assumes power.” Trump’s sort of grotesquely grasping corruption doesn’t benefit any – wait, it obviously benefits him, so I’m not gonna finish that sentence. But it is to the benefit of everyone else for the next administration to say, “Oh _hell_ no,” and destroy the precedent he’s set. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/87 "2020-06-28T14:26:14Z")
Perhaps a President Biden could issue a general pardon covering everything Individual-ONE did as president. The point of doing so would be to interpret everything Individual-ONE did, every Executive Order and cabinet level policy, as being illegal. Individual-ONE himself would be immune from prosecution, but no one else (including his family) would be. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/88 "2020-06-28T14:29:09Z")
If you had to guess: what pardons do you think Trump will issue just before leaving office? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/89 "2020-06-28T14:34:50Z")
His family and himself. Whether or not he can pardon himself is a good question, but I am sure he will try it. Maybe some cronies who know where the skeletons are and may talk under threat of prosecution. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/90 "2020-06-28T16:11:10Z")
The first thing Biden should do is get the keys/creds to that ‘Super Secret’ server that might hold information such as Trumps extortion of Ukraine. What else may he have done? And then decide how to proceed. I suspect that most of it will be empty when Biden arrives. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/91 "2020-06-28T16:32:34Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > If you had to guess: what pardons do you think Trump will issue just before leaving office? Well, the point is, if Individual-ONE is granted an open-ended pardon for his entire tenure, then the legality of every action he performed as President becomes questionable – including the pardons he issued. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/92 "2020-06-28T16:38:53Z")
I don’t think the last bit follows. The Constitutional power of the President to grant pardons is absolute. Even if by accepting a pardon he in effect admits that he is the Anti-Christ, it doesn’t affect that basic Constitutional power. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/93 "2020-06-28T16:41:52Z")
Like that server won’t be a smoking crater by the time Biden is sworn in. Trump’s likely not the only one with secrets to hide on there. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/94 "2020-06-28T17:22:44Z")
What I don’t get, is why this shit would be on there at all? To quote a movie - “You taking notes during a meeting about a criminal conspiracy!?!?!” Perhaps Donald with raid the kitchen and pour some bleach on it. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/95 "2020-06-28T18:21:40Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > What I don’t get, is why this shit would be on there at all? I doubt that much of it is at this point, but at the time of the Ukraine phone call, the white house staff was still being run by people who were more loyal to the US than to Trump, and would ensure that it is preserved, even if it is less publicly accessible than they may desire. At this point, I doubt that much if anything is added to the server, if the server is still in existence at all. > [@enipla](#): > > To quote a movie - > > “You taking notes during a meeting about a criminal conspiracy!?!?!” That was from The Wire. [https://www](https://www). youtube .com/watch?v=hGo5bxWy21g I broke the link for NSFW language, and I haven’t gotten the hang of spoilers yet. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/96 "2020-06-29T00:01:35Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I broke the link for NSFW language, and I haven’t gotten the hang of spoilers yet. Create spoilers the same way as we did in the Elder Days. Put the tag [spoiler] at the beginning and [/spoiler] at the end, and you get this: Put the tag at the beginning and at the end. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/97 "2020-06-29T00:43:15Z")
Oh thanks, I feel kinda dumb. That’s what I did, but I wasn’t expecting the blurred out thing, so I thought it was just being weird on my computer. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/98 "2020-06-29T00:57:39Z")
Imho, Biden should only prosecute Trump for things only a President can do. For example, if it were ever found out that a sovereign foreign entity was paying bounties on American soldiers and the one person responsible for directing policy abdicated his responsibility to react, instead committing to actions which would benefit that same entity after the President learned of such bounty… … in such a scenario I would accept Biden using the federal government to prosecute. But the tax stuff, the Russia 2016 stuff, the Ukraine stuff… no. The government either decided not to prosecute on these matters or, when they did, he was found not guilty. So let that be. Go after him on this bounty stuff, for it is true #TRE45ON. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/99 "2020-06-29T16:06:42Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The government _Whose_ government? Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212/100 "2020-07-02T04:32:19Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > For example, if it were ever found out that a sovereign foreign entity was paying bounties on American soldiers and the one person responsible for directing policy abdicated his responsibility to react, instead committing to actions which would benefit that same entity after the President learned of such bounty… > > … in such a scenario I would accept Biden using the federal government to prosecute. Actually, the president abdicating his responsibility here is completely legal. I cannot see any court prosecuting the president for this. What he has done (or not done as the case may be) is vile but completely within his job duties and immune from prosecution I would think. Presidents have made seriously distasteful decisions in the past such as president Johnson (I think) sweeping the attack of the USS Liberty by Israeli warplanes under the rug. Realpolitik. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-biden-wins-should-he-aggressively-prosecute-the-previous-administration-including-trump/912212.md?page=6)