Trump’s final days look increasingly corrupt

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( Get Jonathan Bernstein’s newsletter every morning in your inbox. [Click here to subscribe.]( The House impeached former President Donald Trump for the second time on Jan. 13; he was acquitted by the Senate one month later, on Feb. 13, by a relatively small margin. Seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats, which meant the vote fell 10 short of the two-thirds needed to convict, but several other Republicans — notably Senator Mitch McConnell, who gave a blistering speech attacking the former president’s actions — let Trump off on a technicality based on their claim that impeachment and conviction of a former president isn’t kosher. Trump’s record looks considerably worse now. There’s still almost certainly more to come, but the more we learn, the more the actions that House prosecutors talked about appear to have been just part of an attempt to flat-out steal the election. Greg Sargent lays out [the details]( of a campaign to corrupt the Justice Department that is far worse than the (extremely bad!) things that President Richard Nixon did during Watergate. That includes a complaint that Trump pressured the department to ask the Supreme Court to throw out electors — that is, to nullify elections — in several states after the Electoral College had met. Election-law maven Rick Hasen [puts it this way:]( Yes it cites debunked conspiracy theories and dubious legal theories and the Epoch Times as authority. But let’s not let the ludicrous nature of the complaint overshadow how dangerous this was: here is the President of the United States directing a lawyer [to pressure the Department of Justice]( into filing a brief in the Supreme Court that would have enjoined the appointment of presidential electors by 5 states that Biden won (and that had already appointed electors pursuant to legal state process). This is nothing less than an attempt to use the courts to steal the election. It is brazen, and dangerous, and an affront to the rule of law. We are lucky that enough election administrators, elected officials, judges, governors and members of Congress blocked these attempts from going forward. And again: That’s what we know so far. It seems very likely that there’s more. In fact, given Trump’s obvious contempt for the rule of law, it would be pretty surprising if there were not additional violations of his oath of office or even crimes. But one could make the case that, taken by themselves, the things we’ve learned in the four months since the end of the Senate trial would add up to one of the most serious scandals in the history of the presidency. Meanwhile, let’s not forget that Trump’s behavior since November has been a national embarrassment — smearing his successor, delivering pathetic insults and of course repeating increasingly obvious lies about the election in which he was defeated. It’s tempting to just ignore it all. But Trump remains popular within much of the Republican Party, and he’s actively seeking to remake it in his image, promoting those who supported his efforts to subvert the election and attempting to drum out those who stood up for democracy. Indeed, Republican senators have successfully defeated an attempt to learn more about what happened on Jan. 6, presumably because it would make Trump and his supporters look bad. There’s at least a reasonable chance that Republicans will nominate him for president a third time. So it seems prudent to keep reminding everyone just how unsuited for any public office this man is. 1. Norm Ornstein is correct: The filibuster [doesn’t really promote bipartisanship](. 2. Katelyn E. Stauffer, Kelsey Shoub and Miyeon Song at the Monkey Cage on [how women police](. 3. Eric McGhee, Jennifer Paluch and Vicki Hsieh on [how California’s population is changing](. 4. Mike Konczal and J.W. Mason on [managing a potential economic boom — and inflation](. 5. Reid Wilson on a [record number of recall elections](, or at least efforts to force recalls. 6. And Kaleigh Rogers and Jasmine Mithani on buying [conspiracy theories](. Get Early Returns every morning in your inbox. [Click here to subscribe](. Also subscribe to [Bloomberg All Access]( and get much, much more. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, the Bloomberg Open and the Bloomberg Close. Sponsored Content The power of PayPal online, now in person. Give your small business an easy way to accept touch-free, in-person payments. Create a unique QR code with the PayPal app and display it on your device or as a printout in store. 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