Justice: Ankush Khardori The Never-ending Case Against Trump

What happens to the rule of law in purgatory?

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FOR MORE THAN FIVE YEARS, the legal campaign against Donald Trump has followed a boom-and-bust cycle. First, some shocking information is reported or a significant development occurs in the various investigations of Trump. Second, national media outlets, assisted by the anti-Trump legal commentariat, explain how Trump might be criminally prosecuted. Then in the end, for some reason or another, Trump remains a free man, the threat he poses to the Republic more potent than ever.

Depending on your disposition, the news on August 8 that the Justice Department had searched Trump's home at Mara-Lago-as part of a criminal investigation into the unlawful retention and destruction of sensitive government documents means either that we are at the start of another of these cycles or that we may finally break free of them. According to the Justice Department, the inquiry "is in its early stages," but many observers began speculating almost immediately about the likelihood of charges being filed against Trump with one former prosecutor quickly concluding that a potential DOJ case against the former president "looks quite strong" and another arguing that "a documents charge, as presidential accusations go, would be relatively easy to prove." A similar flurry of suppositions followed the August 26 release of the affidavit supporting the search warrant, even though the document didn't provide much new insight.