Is a judgement worth the paper it’s written on when it’s ignored with zero consequences?
https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/we-lack-the-power-just...
There is likely a pragmatic view that if they appear to remain relevant they might continue to have some power, even though they already don't.
At the very least, it's not great to send an ex-president who still has substantial support to prison while same ex-president is also spouting conspiracy theories about election fraud and deep state. That doesn't end well.
On the other hand, a strong executive is a feature of the American political system and has its benefits.
Imho, my hope is that the Supreme Court punted on that one by deliberately leaving "official acts of office" vague. And that if push came to shove, election related activities would be defined as not part of presidential duties.
But in 2021, I don't think anyone seriously imagined Trump would actually be President again, and if you don't think he'll actually have any power, yeah, in 2021 it probably looked like a bad optics thing that probably wouldn't make any positive impact to do. And not for nothing, we were also still very much in the middle of COVID-19 as an active crisis.
The clearest Constitutional line would have been impeachment, but the current Republican party cult nixed that one.
At some point, preserving widespread support (including Trump supporters) of elections and the judiciary is more important than not having a dumbass in office for 4 years.
To say nothing of the worst outcome if he had been sent to prison and won an election.
But I would say that if your goal is preserving widespread support of elections and the judiciary from Trump supporters, that is a battle long since lost. Trump and his lackeys already believe any election that isn't a landslide for them was fraud, and has been actively attacking any judge who doesn't go along with his actions.
If we can't preserve widespread support for elections and the judiciary, we might as well put him in prison.
I don't think anyone who spends any significant time around the Trump cult would say this. These people are absolutely devoted to and worship him. When he lost in 2020, my first thought is, he's going to run again in 2024 and every election thereafter until he's dead, and he'll get tens of millions of votes each time.
I expect a lot of his administration to spend their latter years in jail though. Siding with him has basically never paid off for anyone.
Which is the wildest part. Even before his first administration became a revolving door, he’s pretty much always tossed people aside. I almost believe there are people in his inner circle that are “safe”, but then he (the president of the United States) did once rape his own wife - the same one he pushed down a flight of stairs