It still just seems like the crimes should matter more.
In the filing, Smith notes that “The Government’s position on the merits of the defendant’s prosecution has not changed.” It’s just that he was elected president again, you see, and somehow a country super into its founding legal documents and centuries of legal precedent just kind of let that happen.
Smith and his team consulted with the Office of Legal Counsel, which determined that its rule that sitting presidents cannot be under federal indictment should hold here, even though the charges in question were issued against a private citizen. The OLC determined that the charges must be dismissed before Trump takes office in order to not run afoul of the precedent, which is a totally normal turn of logic in a country ruled by a set of laws generally deemed sacred, at least as far as they pertain to normal people.
The prohibition against prosecuting a sitting president, Smith wrote, “is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind.”
There are laws, you see, but only sort of.
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