The moment I heard Trump was being indicted I was in a shopping mall parking lot. My friend and I cheered! We gave each other a High Five and I honked my horn, repeatedly! It was a moment of great joy that after fifty years of various investigations someone had the balls to finally attempt to bring a very, very evil man to justice! Like his mentor, the evil genius Roy Cohn before him, Judgement Day has finally arrived!
I strongly doubt Trump will spend a single minute behind bars. But future Presidents will think twice before pulling similar bullshit. They now will know there will be a real price to pay when they seriously break the law! Yay! It's about time!
There are plenty of penalties short of prison: Humiliation caused by being caught, the tremendous stress one experiences by facing criminal charges, huge fines, reporting to a parole officer, having to wear an ankle bracelet, being placed in a halfway house, being forced to do huge amounts of community service work, going down in history as a convicted crimminal, having future potential profits forfeited from books or movies regarding the committed crimes, having to forfeit the right to run for office as part of a plea agreement, having your ability to travel hampered within the USA, and being forced to surrender your passport. I'm sure the list could go on and on!
Please, for Godesses' sake, let us all learn from President Ford's huge blunder caused by giving the war criminal, President Nixon, a blanket pardon. Had Ford let the legal system run its course, Nixon certainly would have been convicted of a whole slew of crimes! Do you think Trump, for a second, would have been so bold to break so many laws if Nixon got dragged through the legal system? I doubt it!
President Ford is the one person who could have single-handedly prevented future Presidents from acting with so much impunity! It was a golden opportunity! But, no, he was a coward and he kicked the can down the road, something that must never, ever be allowed to happen again!