That deal would permanently add "armed insurrection" to the electoral tactics of the Republican Party. Try and tell me that a President DeSantis wouldn't have that in his playbook the minute he won the primary - if Trump skates without anything substantial, every noteworthy political candidate from now until the dissolution of the union would factor in some form of "might makes right" as part of their strategy.

It would also leave Donald Trump as the titular head of the conservative movement of the United States and permanently enshrine the Trumps as the kingmakers of half of our political process. The Right doesn't give a shit how feckless Don Jr. and Jared Kushner are - they'll totally donate for Don to go do a couple rails and shoot a rhino so long as he says something negative about Hunter Biden while he's doing it.

Finally, it would draw a line in the sand for every toadie in every campaign from here to the end of the time - if you simp hard enough you get a golden ticket, if you half-simp you will go to jail. Roger Stone is out there living his best life but you think locking up a Renfield like Giuliani is somehow going to be enough on this one?

The way you defeat an emperor is by showing he has no clothes. I think it's no accident that the Attorney General slow-walked this mess until they could virtually guarantee this sort of lineup:

As feckless as the Republican opposition is likely to be, spoon-feeding them details is probably the closest anyone can come to forcing the Republicans to reckon with the mess they've made for themselves.