Conservative Professor Josh Blackman doesn’t think the law is all that important when his fellow conservatives are the ones with big, fat targets on their backsides:
Prosecutorial discretion would be a wise choice here. President Biden would not need to follow the model of President Ford, who pardoned President Nixon. But a pledge from the new Attorney General not to prosecute Trump and his acolytes would help unite the country. Remember, more than 70 million people just voted for Trump. And such a pledge–issued before January 20–could remove the incentive for Trump to self-pardon, and pardon his associates. I see a large upside to this exercise of prosecutorial discretion. And, for those who crave blood, the New York Attorney General and the New York District Attorney can proceed on their own accord. [The Volokh Conspiracy]
Which is a bit of a gobsmack. What, is the law merely a convenience that might only apply to your opponents? Does discouraging the potential malefactor mean nothing to Blackman?
Does he want to go through another subpar conservative Administration because they think they’re exempt from penalty?
Sure, sure, don’t persecute, follow the procedures precisely, don’t be bitter. But if someone clearly and deliberately violated the law – say, sold top-secret military technology to the Russians – then prosecutions must proceed or we’re all lost.
This is the recommendation of the blindly partisan or the demented. There was no contradictory forethought given to it at all.
And – heaven forfend! It might demonstrate to those 70 million voters the essential corruption for which they may have been voting.
How much cossetting does Blackman intend to do?
