Even before former President Donald Trump was indicted last week, Republicans and pundits were busy predicting that Democrats wouldn’t like what comes next. Those warnings grew even grimmer after Trump’s arraignment in New York on Tuesday.
Appearing Wednesday morning on “Fox & Friends,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told the hosts that he’d fielded calls from two county attorneys, one from Kentucky and one from Tennessee. “They want to know if there are ways they can go after the Bidens,” he said. Democrats like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have “opened up a can of worms; they’ve set precedents now we can’t go back on,” Comer moaned.
It is at best an extremely unserious theory that ignores the foundations of our justice system.
Call it the “Pandora’s Box” theory of Trump’s indictment. Under this theory, as Comer laid out, now that Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts in New York City, it’s going to be open season on future presidents. Often this has been posited as a threat against Democrats in general and President Joe Biden in particular. It is at best an extremely unserious theory that ignores the foundations of our justice system. At worst, it is a sign that Republicans will be more than happy to dish out retribution to avenge Trump’s finally being held accountable.
Let’s stick with Comer’s specific claim for a second. Suppose these two county attorneys do decide to launch investigations into the Bidens. They will find their probes lack some of the advantages of Bragg’s case. Most obviously, the charges against Trump stem from the fact that his business is in Bragg’s jurisdiction. There is no analogous reason for the county attorneys who allegedly gave Comer a ring to look into Biden or his son Hunter.
The claim that we may see a rash of future criminal investigations all over the country also doesn’t consider the actual cost, which I’m guessing most Republican district…
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