The issue with charging him and imprisoning him is that it has to be apolitical. A government in power can’t be seen as using its authority to punish political opponents.
So even if he is guilty it has to be clear. Things around the campaign and things done while in office would be very difficult to avoid it appearing like revenge.
Tax Evasion is where I think the least political opportunities lie. Get him the same way way as Capone.
As for self pardoning the only restriction given in the constitution is that you cannot Pardon in cases of Impeachment. Given that the constitution has specific criteria of when Pardons are not permitted I suspect the originalists on the court will argue that if they wanted to state the president couldn’t Pardon himself they would have. Obviously this has not been tested at the Supreme Court.
During Watergate the AG wrote a positionnsayingbthey didn’t believe the president could Pardon himself.
It’s well accepted that a president can’t pardon state crimes so that would also be a route to get around his inevitable self pardon.
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