Q Toon: Send Out the Clowns

When I drew this cartoon on Sunday night, Donald "Spats" Trump had teased us with the prediction that he would be arrested by the Manhattan District Attorney on Tuesday.

As we now know, the Manhattan D.A. wasn't quite ready to put Diamonique Don in handcuffs just yet. The threat of MAGA mob action, however, prompted D.A. Alvin Bragg to warn against any efforts to intimidate his office.

For the moment, that intimidation is coming from congressional Republicans, several of whom are demanding an investigation of the the D.A.'s office for what they call a politically motivated prosecution. Three House committee chairs and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have called for Bragg to turn over communications and documents from his office and to testify before their committees. McCarthy also complained, "You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former president of the United States!"

So says the political party that hired a prosecutor to investigate charges of realty chicanery in Arkansas, and when all the guy found was semen stains on a dress, they decided, "Okay, then, let's just impeach Bill Clinton for that."

I'm not particularly interested in the whole porn star hush money business in the first place. The alleged transaction in question took place before Trump became president, so we know that he wasn't having Ms. Daniels spank him with rolled up highly classified documents. Stormygate may be great fodder for late-night TV comedy, but it doesn't rise to the level of, say, colluding with Russia during a presidential campaign.

Or pressuring a foreign government to dig up dirt on the family of a president's political rival. 

Or pressuring a state official to pull 11,780 votes out of thin air. 

Or instigating an attempted coup.

But as the most corrupt president in the history of the Republic, Trump is going to be arraigned for something or other one of these days — unprecedented or not. 

The presidential oath of office does not include a free and full pardon for all high crimes and misdemeanors past, present, and future.