No, President Biden did NOT say he’ll let Donald Trump slide on criminal charges
Some of you are totally misinterpreting Joe Biden’s remarks. He said that while he isn’t personally excited about Trump being prosecuted, he’s going to completely stay out of it and let the Attorney General and the DOJ make all the decisions. Biden is just trying to stay above the fray.
Really, it’s what you want from President Biden. The last thing we need is the appearance that Biden has anything at all to do with the criminal charges that will (obviously) be brought against Trump. The DOJ isn’t just going to magically let Trump’s crimes slide. Biden will simply lament publicly about the fact that any of it’s even necessary, even as Trump goes down.
Besides, Trump will likely try to pardon himself on federal charges on his way out the door. This will be disputed in court, but it could take time to sort out. In other words, New York is likely to bring unpardonable state charges against Trump before the Feds even get an opportunity to bring their charges.
As such, Trump is likely to go on criminal trial in New York State first, and if he’s convicted and sentenced to prison – which is nearly always the case on cut and dry financial crimes – any federal charges will merely have the effect of piling on. Given his age and poor health, Trump has little chance of outliving his state prison sentence.
