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But once criminal prosecution and jail time are on the table for official acts allowed by the Constitution to the President, either in office or once he leaves, harassing lawfare gains teeth it didn’t have before. Hence immunity.
The public interest in preventing harassing lawfare against private citizens (including ex-Presidents) is a lot weaker than the public interest in preventing harassing lawfare against a sitting President.
If Obama had been brought up on criminal charges following his terms (let’s say serially for Benghazi, Gaddafi, and Operation Fast and Furious, off the top of my head), the public would absolutely care.
They’d be worked into riotous fervor by the media: “How dare they try to make the first Black President into a felon! This is a banana republic! Obama did nothing wrong! He was just doing his Constitutionally mandated duties, no matter how things turned out!” And so on, and so forth.
The “public” doesn’t care because the progressives want Trump to die in prison and the conservatives don’t have time in their workdays to go protest.
EDIT: I realize you said “public interest” as in the stakes the country has in each scenario. I disagree, because of the spectre of an end to the peaceful transfer of power, the very thing constantly hung around Donald Trump’s neck re Jan 6.
That’s not a very good analogy. What would be the charges?
I don’t believe Trump is being charged either for his foreign policy, or for his handling of law enforcement.
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