Before Donald Trump came along, when someone thought of a controversial president who committed outright criminal acts from the White House. Richard Nixon operated by seemingly being under the notion that the president was above the law, just as Trump does today.
Echoes of Nixon: A President Above the Law
In the background of all the public investigations into Nixon sat Deep Throat, the mysterious FBI informant who helped ensure that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Deep Throat was pivotal to their reporting – always keeping the pair focused on the crimes they were investigating and reporting to the American public.
History seems to be repeating itself in real time: a president operating with apparent impunity, as if above the law.
“When the president does it, that means it is not illegal. Actions which otherwise would be unconstitutional could become lawful if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the Constitution and the nation.”
Richard Milhous Nixon
Nixon remains the only U.S. president to have resigned from office and then require a pardon for acts undertaken while in office.
From Alleged Fraud to Constitutional Challenges
Like Nixon, Trump has repeatedly demanded that laws and the Constitution be set aside in order to cling to power. At one point, he publicly suggested that the Constitution itself be overturned based on his unproven claims of election fraud. The pursuit of those claims led to the legal disbarment of several attorneys who represented him.
A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.
Donald Trump
Having failed to overturn one of the country’s foundational documents and facing legal jeopardy for encouraging his followers to attempt to overturn the election by force, Trump pursued a strategy Nixon had hinted at but never executed: instead of seeking a pardon from his successor for his potential crimes, he demanded that the Supreme Court elevate the presidency above the law.
At the time, the Supreme Court did not explicitly endorse this sweeping claim, but a series of rulings have made it extremely difficult to prosecute sitting or former presidents for actions taken while in office. The practical implication is that any action deemed an “official act” may receive some level of immunity, even if controversial or legally questionable. Given that the presidency is a continuous, high-level role, future presidents may face fewer personal legal risks while in office.
Trump and Epstein: Truth May Come Out
The parallels to Nixon do not end there, but there are important distinctions:
Not only has Trump allegedly committed several acts during his presidency that may never be prosecuted, but his long-standing ties to Jeffrey Epstein, and the efforts to shield those ties from public scrutiny, suggest that Trump may have been involved in other potential criminal activity.
The lengths to which Trump and his handpicked allies—such as Kash Patel and Pam Bondi—went to oversee the FBI and Department of Justice mirror some aspects of Nixon’s eventual downfall. For example, after the Epstein investigation was closed, it was reported that numerous FBI agents worked overtime reviewing and redacting the Epstein files.
“The frantic effort is trying to solve a problem largely of the White House’s own making: Trump allies spent months fanning conspiracies over Epstein’s suicide death and whether the government was holding on to information that could expose prominent people who may have been in involved in his alleged crimes.”
This effort became a priority, drawing FBI resources away from other investigations, including potential threats from Iran and China.
The financial cost of the redaction effort was later reported: FBI agents spent 3,000 hours of paid overtime reviewing and redacting files at Patel’s request, costing over $850,000 in just a five-day period. This figure only accounts for overtime, not the regular hours spent.
Simple Math
| Metric | Value |
| Overtime hours spent by FBI redacting files | 3000 |
| Overtime hours per shift | 4 |
| Total number of shifts required | 750 |
| Number of days | 5 |
| Potential number of agents involved in redaction efforts | 150 |
By rough estimation, this effort could have involved at least 150 agents—the same agencies Trump has publicly criticized for years. Just a month before the Epstein review began, Trump was calling the FBI “corrupt” and demanding that Patel purge questionable agents.
The wheels of government turn slowly. Even if Trump’s claims of corruption were accurate, it is highly doubtful Patel could have identified and removed every agent more committed to justice than to protecting the president.
Help us ghost of Mark Felt, you are are only hope
One can only hope that among the dozens of agents involved in reviewing the Epstein files, there remains at least one who functions as a modern-day Mark Felt—willing to blow the whistle and expose wrongdoing, regardless of personal or political risk.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.