AOC should talk. In fact, she has. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “Trump sycophants” should be held accountable for their “complicity in the future” and wants their Tweets archived, preserved as evidence presumably for some sort of people’s revolutionary tribunal. AOC is just one of many who want some. The talk in Washington is about revenge. It is not pretty.

Keeping in mind that Trump was not responsible for the Holocaust, tyranny, totalitarianism, gulags, secret police disappearances, genocide, apartheid, a torture regime, offshore penal colonies, gassing his own people or the like, the calls seem a bit extreme. But in many ways we live in extreme times, so what are the chances President Biden would release the full force of the American system against his former rival?

Zero.

The simplest explanation is persecuting, humiliating or prosecuting political opponents after they lose is third world stuff. Biden won. There is no political value in dancing on Trump’s grave or in the criminalization of policy differences. Carter didn’t try it with Nixon, Bush I pardoned not prosecuted six Reagan White House officials who were involved in the Iran-contra affair, Bush II didn’t prosecute Lyin’ Bill Clinton, and Obama didn’t do it with George “The Torturer” Bush and his henchmen. Despite leading chants only weeks ago of  “lock her up,” even Trump didn’t do it when he had the power to try. Biden has a full plate and the last thing he wants is for some politically-motivated prosecution to ensure all wounds are kept open. Nope, nobody is throwing Baby political advantage out with the Trump bathwater.

No, the real wet dreams for revenge rest with the Southern District of New York (SDNY; led by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance but ultimately controlled by Biden’s Department of Justice) and failing that, the New York State Attorney General Letitia James. The former already failed in 2012 to indict Trump’s children after they were accused of misleading investors, and faced judicial rebukes in the past for sloppy work and political motivations. The latter is beloved by progressives as an angry woman of color with a habit of talking bad ass. Either way the narrative runs like this: both offices have been compiling nasty stuff against Trump, held back only by custom which prevents them from indicting him as long as he’s the president. As of January 20 he is open game. In addition, if they can press New York state level charges, those are exempt from any federal pardon Trump might get from himself or from Mike Pence through some president-for-a-day 25th Amendment witchcraft.

Leaving aside the untested law surrounding self-pardons, as well as double jeopardy concerns (NY’s laws there are among the strictest in the country; SDNY already failed in its prosecution of Paul Manafort based on double jeopardy) related to anything to do with impeachment or something under IRS audit, and the questions of jurisdiction and extradition (Trump is a Florida citizen) the forces of good have got to have something they can actually prosecute Trump for. An actual crime. Being an evil president or making mean decisions on immigration do not count in actual courts (and good luck finding an impartial jury.) The biggest problem with all this desired vengeance is the same thing that failed Russiagate; it is based on an assumption Trump must have done something wrong. The creation of a “crime” such as drove the impeachment only worked because of a partisan House willing to play along. The New York state system is no such kangaroo court, and affords defendants far more protections than federal courts. There are strict rules governing evidence that can be presented to a grand jury, and even minor procedural errors can result in indictments being thrown out. “If you’re a white-collar defendant, you’d rather be in New York State court than in federal court any day of the week,” said SDNY’s former top deputy.

That said, a politically-minded prosecutor can always find some way to file charges for the show value, even while knowing the case will disappear on motions. But the hope is beyond a media event like that, somewhere in the complex finances of the Trump Organization lies a smoking gun. The problem with that for anything tax/finance related, one must remember the IRS and the New York Department of Revenue have had Trump’s taxes for decades. Whatever the SDNY hopes they show, the IRS, Treasury, FBI, NY state, NJ Gaming Commission and who knows who else already has seen them, or could have if they had suspicions, and for decades have not prosecuted Trump. The current IRS audit of Trump has been ongoing since 2010 and there is nothing to indicate it will conclude anytime soon. The IRS also tends to conclude cases by asking for money, as criminal fraud is very difficult to prove. In tax-fraud cases, prosecutors are required to prove misconduct was intentional by the principal, a high bar. A jury might wonder if Trump’s daughter’s consulting services were worth $740,000, but if Trump argued he valued them at that level, that could constitute a viable defense against fraud even if the deduction was ultimately disallowed. Trump’s teams of accountants also gives him personal cover for many potentially fraudulent claims.

Another idea is Trump misvalued some New York real estate to obtain loans, a civil offense at worst usually settled with new assessments or a fine. The city of New York assesses a value to each property for tax purposes. Nearly every property owner in NYC believes his assessed value is too high and pushes back, to the point where this is not even handled by a court, instead through a tax commission grievance process. Owners want a lower value to pay less tax, except when they approach a bank for the equivalent of a refi loan, when they want their property to seem more expensive to secure a bigger loan. It is the bank who then decides what a property is worth to them as collateral, via their own due diligence. It is always complicated, as much art as science; beyond the usual valuation factors of location, location, location, some buildings in New York are iconic, or famous for their brand name (coug, cough, “Trump”), what history they represent, etc. Some just have nice views. Sometimes the bank is generous because in return for the loan they’ll secure some other business of value to them. Over-valuing/under-valuing real estate in New York City is sport, but as a crime is so much not ado about nothing it is not going to send anyone to jail. Imagine the yawns as a grand jury listens to accountants explain Trump’s tiered exemptions, and how their value is subtracted from the DOF assessed value to calculate a taxable value which is then multiplied by the current tax rate for the specific assigned property class. Tomorrow we’ll talk about easements going back to when Mayor Koch was in charge!

That leaves Stormy. Michael Cohen would be the star witness in this Last Great Hope. At his 2019 televised hearing Cohen displayed a check for $35,000 from Trump to him, which was supposedly part of $130k paid to Stormy Daniels (there is at least one other woman, Karen McDougal, as well) under a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) to keep quiet about her affair with Trump. This one seems to have it all — lurid details, opportunities for the media to run bosomy photos of Stormy, and a recycling of all those Godfather references when Michael the Consigliere, the Fixer Cohen takes the stand. A case built around events predating the Trump presidency dependent on the testimony of gold digging porn star and a disbarred felon lawyer trying to sing his way out of jail that a grand jury will sign off on? As the kids say, it’s complicated. Complicated enough it deserves its own article, next week.

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• I’m Disgusted with the Trump Indictment
• Clarence Thomas Takes One for the Court
• Third World Politics: Details of the Trump Indictment