Dem
47
GOP
53
U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan of the Eastern District of Virginia has indicted former FBI Director James Comey and NY AG Letitia James. Republican senators know very well these are vindictive prosecutions and both cases are so weak that no U.S. attorney was willing to make a fool of himself or herself and file an indictment. Donald Trump had to first get rid of the previous U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia, Erik Siebert, so he could put in someone willing to sign the indictments. Nevertheless, no Republican senators are talking about these indictments in public, even though they know very well that they are legal garbage and morally completely wrong.
Many of them are worried about what is next. They fear that Trump will order AG Pam Bondi to indict Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), whom Trump bitterly hates. Schiff's alleged "crime" is getting mortgages on his house in Burbank, CA, and his house in Potomac, MD, claiming both as a primary residence. Schiff is clearly a legal resident of California. He votes there, pays California state income tax, and has a California driver's license. His "crime" then would be claiming his house in Maryland as a "primary" residence, even though he lives there around 10 months a year.
The problem for the Republican senators is that their situations are almost all the same as Schiff's. Almost all of them own a home in their home state and most also have a home in D.C., Maryland, or Virginia as well, and very likely most of them claimed both as primary residences on their mortgage applications. If Trump can indict Schiff for having two primary residences, what is to stop a future Democratic president from asking his or her AG to indict them for the same offense as Schiff? This is making them very nervous.
In the end, Trump may not get his indictment (so easily). Schiff's house is in Maryland, so Halligan can't indict him. Trump will have to convince the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, Kelly Hayes, to do it, or replace her with a flunky who will. Hayes has a J.D. from a reputable law school, the University of North Carolina, and has been a prosecutor since 2013. She is not going to take on a case she knows she will lose. Trump could try to get rid of her, but it won't be so easy. Hayes is already serving as interim U.S. attorney after Trump's previous pick, Phil Selden, had to stand down. She was first appointed to replace Selden by AG Pam Bondi, back in February. Then she was re-appointed by the judges of the circuit in July. These things being the case, she can only be replaced by a Senate-confirmed nominee, or by a different attorney selected by the judges of the circuit. The Senate probably won't confirm someone whose clear mandate is to go after Schiff, and the judges definitely won't.
Trump violates norms left and right, but ordering the indictment of a sitting senator on essentially made-up charges takes his vengeance to an entirely new level. Senators can and have been indicted—former senator Bob Menendez comes to mind—but he was an actual crook, charged with a serious offense (taking bribes), and there was a mountain of very hard evidence (in the form of gold bars) against him.
If Trump goes ahead, it will be an impossible battle. In addition to an extremely weak case, Schiff has signed up legal giant WilmerHale to defend him and his lawyer is Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired from his job as a U.S. attorney in the SDNY in 2017. Schiff has also raised an undisclosed amount of money for his legal defense and has almost $9 million in his campaign account, which could be tapped if need be. Bharara is probably salivating at the prospect of handing Trump a very high-profile defeat in court and would probably have worked for free had that been necessary, which it isn't.
So far, no Republican has spoken up to defend Schiff, but in private many of them are very worried what this could do to the Senate now and possibly in the future, if the shoe is then on the other foot. All of this might come to a grinding halt if a Republican senator not up again until 2030 were to say out loud: "Indicting a U.S. senator on a made-up charge is such an abuse of power that the president should be impeached if he does it." But so far, much anguish in private but crickets in public. (V)