by Kitty Testa
If you are of the belief that Hillary Clinton is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing regarding the handling of classified materials while Secretary of State, and you are convinced that the Clinton Foundation is a legitimate charity and not an international pay-to-play graft machine, then you might be surprised that anyone would even mention a pardon for Clinton. That would imply that Hillary Clinton has done something wrong, and you’re sure she hasn’t.
But a lot of people are quite certain of the opposite. In case you missed one of Donald Trump’s many rallies, the chants of “Lock her up!” resounded to the rafters. At the RNC convention in Cleveland this past summer, “Hillary for Prison” T-shirts were a best-seller. As I wrote earlier this month, information discovered in the John Podesta WikiLeaks dumps lends credibility to the idea that the Clinton Foundation was a front for the personal enrichment of the Clintons themselves.
Hillary has become the poster-child for powerful people who always seem to get away with it. For many, seeing her slapped with a criminal indictment, go through a lengthy trial and face a jury of her peers is a fantasy worth relishing. It would affirm a collective desire for blind justice. It would assure people that there aren’t one set of rules for the patricians and another for the plebeians.
Yet when thinking about what might actually occur if soon-to-be President Trump keeps his campaign promise of appointing a special prosecutor to make the case against Hillary, and if such an investigation led to an actual criminal indictment, the damage to our country and our culture could be irreparable. Here are five reasons why.
1. A Hillary trial would be a national circus that we can’t afford
The trial of Hillary Clinton would be something like a cross between the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995 and the Watergate hearings of 1973. God forbid such proceedings would be televised, but such transparency might be demanded, and the trial would become a months or years-long courtroom drama.
The trial would dominate press coverage and water cooler talk. It would seem like nothing else at all was happening. With the public’s attention squarely on the Hillary trial, an open door would be created for government to get busy making laws that nobody wants because nobody would be paying attention.
You may be aware that October 3, 1995 was the costliest day for productivity in the United States, with $480 million in lost output. But that was just the day that the O. J. Simpson verdict was read. Throughout the trial, people seemed to take every opportunity to gab about the developments in the trial, listen to talk radio, and turn on televisions at work. The true lost productivity was likely in the tens of billions of dollars for the trial that began in January and wrapped up with a verdict in October, which in turn led to months of reaction and analysis. In fact, 1995 had the lowest GDP growth of any year during the Bill Clinton administration at 2.55%, sandwiched between 4.11% in 1994 and 3.79% in 1996. With GDP growth hovering now at 1%, we simply can’t afford that kind of productivity loss.
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