An Interesting Question

 I was out in the cold the other day, cleaning up after my dogs. I had a little plastic bag to put the frozen dog poop in, and used a heavy-duty metal blade and scoop my wife had gotten for me to do the job.

It gave me about 20 minutes alone to think. Which, naturally enough, led me to think about how Congress and the Biden Administration will clean up after Donald Trump.

Free association is an odd thing. You can’t plan what will pop into your mind.

Let me share my thoughts with you.

Obviously his term is coming to an end. Clearly he is working on some kind of insurance policy to keep from having even more legal troubles than he already faces. And, truly, I don’t think anyone is dumb enough to make a deal with him like the one Nixon got.

Nixon had five people break into Democratic headquarters and try and steal political information. Trump had thousands of people break into the Capital and steal our very democracy - hardly the equivalent being pushed by some commentators on Fox News.

So, it looks like getting a pardon is Donald Trump’s last, best hope. But, should he give it to himself, or quit his post at the last minute and let Mike Pence bail him out. Just two choices. Both of them are risky.

Well, there is actually another way out for him. He could fly out to Moscow and seek asylum. He could also fly to some uninhabited island in the Pacific, form his own country, and refuse to extradite himself. But, I don’t see either of those things happening.

So, does he open door number one and pardon himself, or does he open door number two and get the Vice President to do it.

Well, a self-pardon is risky. It is sure to be challenged in the Supreme Court, and those judges have already refused to hand him the election by declaring all those votes for Democrats to be invalid.

I don’t think he expects gratitude from those traitors. And, there isn’t enough time for him to get on the good side of Michael Cohen again and have him do something to win them over either.

So, that leaves Mike Pence. Now I know he doesn’t like the vice president as much as he used to - you remember, when the Vice President went before the TV cameras and said what an honor it was to work for Donald Trump.

Besides, Pence was the one who was supposed to make sure the whole nation was vaccinated for Coronavirus, and look at the mess he made of that, despite Donald Trump’s bold leadership to inspire him.

It was at that point that sarcasm fled and an actual legal question popped into my head.

Now Pence is a lawyer - he got his degree from Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law in 1986, before he went on to become a conservative host on radio and tv talk shows.

Why should we care? Because it’s likely he has heard the legal phrase “accessory after the fact.”

Let me explain that in non-lawyer terms. I can do it because I’m not a lawyer, so everything I write is in non-lawyer terms. And, I have covered enough trials in my career to know some legal stuff - things like what “guilty” and “not guilty” mean.

Here’s the legal question that popped into my head. If Pence pardons former President Donald Trump, does he become an accessory after the fact.

Let me give you an example. A neighbor of yours comes over and asks to borrow your car for an hour. Then, completely without your knowledge, he robs a store and shoots a clerk who later dies.

The police show up a couple of hours later and ask you about the robber. You don’t want to get into trouble, so you don’t tell them you gave him your car. Then, he tries to rob another store, a silent alarm goes off, and he is arrested a few blocks away.

Now, here are two things that might happen - The police call you, tell them that a car registered in your name has been found near a crime scene, and ask if you want to pick it up or if they should simply return it to you. Let’s call that “A”.

Or - and we can call this “B” - the police knock on your door, tell you that you have facilitated several crimes after the fact, including robbery and murder, because you gave the robber your car, and it was used in a crime.

Well, if Donald Trump gets pardoned, does that mean his Vice President is responsible for his behavior? Do you think that Pence could actually argue that pardoning Trump will mean the country will heal, and that Trump will no longer be involved in politics or try to tear the nation apart?

Well, there are some statements by Pence on the record, talking about how honored he was to be working with President Trump. Sure sounds like they were associates to me.

So, what to do? What to do?

Gee, an impeachment might be looking better and better. I wonder if Pence has any influence in Congress.