Don’t Be Scared of Prosecuting Trump
On December 29, 1992, a grand jury delivered a 13-count felony indictment of Alabama Governor Guy Hunt. Four months later, the governor was convicted of money laundering—of looting his inaugural fund to cover a variety of personal expenses, including a marble shower—and removed from office.
At the time of Hunt’s conviction, former West Virginia Governor Arch Moore Jr. was rounding out a prison sentence for a litany of felonies, including tax fraud and obstruction of justice. Mail fraud and racketeering landed Maryland’s legendary progressive governor, Marvin Mandel, in prison, and election fraud did the same for Connecticut’s Governor John Rowland. Rhode Island Governor Edward DiPrete and Illinois Governor George Ryan served time for bribery, Tennessee’s Ray Blanton for extortion, and Louisiana’s Edwin Edwards for nearly all the above. And of course, Illinois’s Rod Blagojevich secured a 14-year prison sentence for his attempt to sell a U.S. Senate seat, among other crimes.
[David A. Graham: Why the rioters thought they could get away with it]
Against the recent spectacle of an American president and his allies , such criminal misconduct by other chief executives appears almost quotidian. Illegally lining one’s own pockets is never good, but to is more than a difference of degree. One might criminal behavior at the most senior levels of government is in full swing.
