The Hill’s Top Opinions: To prosecute or not to prosecute?

View Online  Opinion Monday, August 8 ©  AP Good Monday evening. This is Daniel Allott with The Hill's Top Opinions. On this day 48 years ago, Richard Nixon announced his intention to become the first president in U.S. history to resign. Nixon's announcement set off a debate within the Special Prosecutor's Office about whether he should be prosecuted.   That discussion didn't last long, as a month later Nixon was pardoned by President Ford. But the debate provides lessons for today and the question of whether former President Trump should be prosecuted for his efforts to prevent a peaceful transition of power following the 2020 election.     Opinion contributor RICHARD J. DAVIS thought the Watergate prosecutors needed to consider not only the legal issues involved but also whether prosecution would be in the public interest. Davis knows a little bit about the subject: He served as an assistant Watergate special prosecutor and task force leader.   During Watergate, Davis's view was that a decision about prosecution should be deferred, he writes, "to allow time, and the emotions of the moment, to pass."   Davis compares the facts in both cases, concluding that Attorney General Merrick Garland should even at this late stage appoint an independent counsel to make a final prosecution decision, which Davis believes would "promote as widespread acceptance as possible."   Read Davis's op-ed here.   Not subscribed to The Hill's Top Opinions? Sign up here. More on potential Trump prosecution Merrick Garland's complicated Trump prosecution calculus More Top Opinions   The one thing Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit achieved By ANDREW LATHAM, non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities If Pelosi's decision to visit Taiwan, and all the storm and fury that surrounded it, can be said to have achieved anything, it is that it has raised once again the question of how the United States should answer the Taiwan question. It is worth recalling that Washington has answered this question correctly on three previous occasions, each time prudently trimming its policy sails to the then-prevailing geopolitical winds. Read the op-ed here Hate speech, privacy and the personal lives of public officials By JOHN FARMER JR., director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University The escalating threats to the lives of public officials, from federal judges and members of Congress to local election officials, require urgent action to address the common threads underlying those threats: easy access to private information on platforms that do little to discourage the proliferation of hate messaging that leads to real world targeting.  Read the op-ed here The gathering political storm in America By BILL SCHNEIDER, emeritus professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University Differences based on religion, race and education are not simply differences of interest, like business versus labor. They are differences of values and identity. Differences of interest can be negotiated and compromised. Differences of values and identity cannot. Read the op-ed here Abortion rights is a multi-criteria decision By SHELDON H. JACOBSON, data scientist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign On abortion, how can one resolve two positions that appear not just diametrically opposed, but are not even on the same page? This is like two baseball teams showing up at different baseball diamonds to play each other. A first step forward may lie in the field of multi-criteria decisionmaking.   Read the op-ed here Quick Takes Pelosi was right to go to Taiwan — China's threats are hollow   Russia's co-opting of US political groups is serious business   Congress can't codify Roe: Here's what it can do Views from beyond The Hill With Trump, it's 2015 all over again Stay Engaged The Hill's Top Opinions is written by Daniel Allott, an opinion editor at The Hill and the author of "On the Road in Trump's America: A Journey Into the Heart of a Divided Nation."   Views expressed by contributors are theirs and not the opinion of The Hill.   Check out The Hill's Opinion section online for the latest. Interested in submitting an op-ed? Click here. If you find this newsletter useful, please consider recommending it to others: thehill.com/opinion.  Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  Sign Up for Other Newsletters 1625 K Street NW, 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20006 © 1998 - 2022 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved.