THREAD. I am failing to see any better path for Trump apart from resignation. (Yes, I know you will say, "He'll never do that" but also did you ever think three days ago that he'd be impeached twice?) Here's me as HIS (competent) lawyer:

2. You will be impeached. Your goal now is to avoid criminal liability, and, if possible, jail time. If you resign now, you avoid several unpleasant possibilities. For one, you make the potential for an invocation of the 25th amendment, on the basis that you are CRAZY, moot

3. If you resign, and Mike Pence becomes President, he will likely give you a limited, but nevertheless broad, pardon. If he emulates Ford's pardon for Nixon, you will be pardoned for (at the very least) obstruction of justice in the Mueller investigation

4. He MAY be able to give you a pardon for crimes committed BEFORE you took office, such as your campaign finance violation, or whatever sketchy financial crimes you committed, but that is touch and go. There is *some* ambiguity over whether such a "blanket" pardon is valid BUT

5. You could also mitigate this by being frank with him and allowing him to be as specific as possible on your prior criminal liability in the pardoning language (like financial crimes re taxes, etc.). He is, however, unlikely to pardon you for inciting insurrection BECAUSE...

6. You literally almost got him killed and he hates you for that, plus he has political ambitions. But here, the real outcome is that no one wants to see you in public office ever again. SO, there are a couple of possibilities:

7. After impeachment, the Senate may convict you and then vote to prohibit you from holding public office. You know what, screw them, right? Haha. (cough) So...the other possibility is that alternatively/addition to, you get investigated for and charged for inciting insurrection

8. BUT if you plead guilty to Rebellion and Insurrection INSTEAD, *and* AGREE not to hold public office again, they MIGHT grant you a deal, with no jail time! That sounds good, huh? *awkward encouraging laugh*

9. *clears throat* So here's the problem. You have to show that you take some kind of responsibility. Some remorse. Resigning now does that. THAT is what helped Nixon. He resigned. Prosecuting him after that just seemed a little extra, you know?

10. You at least give your allies some basis to argue, enough is enough! He did the same thing as Nixon! But *ominous music* you are facing a potentially far worse fate. For one thing, your only option is to pardon yourself

11. This is very risky, because it will basically guarantee that you will be prosecuted for SOMETHING when you leave office, as Asha Rangappa so eloquently argued in The Washington Post () https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-raffensperger-pardon-prosecute/2021/01/06/a32388fe-4f9d-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

12. Plus, you will have absolutely NO good faith argument to suggest that you have already incurred enough of a punishment (resigning/accepting accountability + not ever running for public office again) to justify leniency as a former POTUS

13. And you'll be totally screwed because if SCOTUS rules against you the feds will TOTALLY nail your ass and the States are going to get you anyway.

So what do you think?

14. P.S. My assistant tells me there is a red eye to Moscow at 11:42 p.m. from Dulles and there is no extradition treat + Putin welcomes foreign heads of state to make their residence there. My job is to advise you of all your options.