It happens all the time. Public Servants in the bureaucracies and elected officials get busted and lose their office and sometimes go to jail.  It might have happened with Richard Nixon but the process got short circuited. He resigned.  President Gerald Ford pardoned him.  


The Ford Pardon of Nixon in 1974 was full and unconditional. President Ford felt that Nixon admitted his guilt and was contrite in accepting the Pardon. 


After all, President Nixon resigned rather than go through the impeachment process.


Fifty plus years after the Watergate Cover Up the punishment fit the crime. Historians feel that Ford's Pardon cost him in 1976.


No love lost for Nixon, some might have tolerated his policies, but there were a lot of institutional reasons to get him (Nixon) out of office and hit the reset button.


Doesn't look like any Republican Leader wants to say "Our long national nightmare is over". And it seems that any criminal indictment of a former president may add another level of institutional insult. Election results will be questioned and it will be even more difficult to convince good people to run for office.


George Santos is already raising money for reelection.

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