Michael J. Stern

Opinion columnist

The thing about being president is that your every move, past and present, is subject to microscopic examination. That can be a problem if your closet is filled with skeletons …or decomposing bodies.

In Donald Trump’s case, his skeletons often include legal jeopardy. The most recent example of his legal exposure is the whistleblower complaint that detailed Trump’s efforts to persuade the president of Ukraine to produce dirt on political rival Joe Biden, possibly in exchange for the release of U.S. financial aid. Trump’s solicitation could well be a violation of federal campaign contribution laws.

While the whistleblower allegations are at the center of the newly official congressional impeachment inquiry, the president’s latest legal breach is preceded by a long line of similar activities. Who could forget the New York U.S. Attorney’s “porngate” indictment in which Trump is named as an unindicted co-conspirator, “Individual 1,” alongside his former personal attorney? Or the multiple examples of criminal obstruction set forth in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report?

Trump can be indicted for past crimes

While it appears to many Americans that Trump is above the law, this status is only conferred on him as long as he remains president. An Office of Legal Counsel opinion forbids the indictment of a sitting president but offers no protection to a former president. Once he leaves office, Trump can be indicted for past crimes, including those he committed as president.

At that point, his only legal protection will be the statute of limitations — the time limit for charging a crime. The federal statute of limitations for most crimes, including campaign finance and obstruction violations, is five years.

Any crimes Trump might have committed early in his campaign will not be chargeable if he leaves office in 2021. But paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, firing FBI Director James Comey, and ordering the White House counsel to fire Mueller are all fair game for indictment if Trump does not win a second term.

This sobering recognition on Trump’s part could be fueling what appears to be his escalating desperation to ensure that he secures another four years in the White House.

He'll burn the house down to win 2020

The cards, as Trump has played them, leave him in a predicament. If he loses the 2020 election, he will be red meat for a Democratic president and attorney general eager to hold him accountable for his flagrant abuses of power. To avoid being fed to the Democrats, Trump’s best bet is to follow the tried-and-true playbook that secured his 2016 win. This means illegally soliciting foreign assistance in the upcoming election.

If time and experience have shown us anything about Trump, it is that he is willing to burn the house down to secure his own advantage. How else to explain his recent effort with Ukraine? It is essentially the same crime that put him in Mueller’s sights for nearly two years.

And it accomplished what Mueller could not. The former special counsel’s 448-page report showed a sprawling pattern of corruption. The call between Trump and the Ukrainian president is a discrete nugget of corruption that has a beginning and an end, and it's easily understood. It’s perfectly geared to the many Americans who view politics like a TV sitcom — 23 minutes of attention and done.

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At the moment, impeachment is the best bet for Democrats. Unlike a criminal prosecution, impeachment does not require strict adherence to a criminal statute. And unlike a criminal trial, one MAGA juror cannot derail the train.

Reelection is Trump's only protection

Assuming the House votes in favor of articles of impeachment, it looks unlikely at this point that there will be enough straight-spined Republicans to convict and remove Trump in a Senate trial. Even so, impeachment in the House will have its own rewards, including a rallying cry to flip the Senate.

And the tide might be turning on Trump. Even the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr of North Carolina, is conducting an “inquiry” into the whistleblower complaint. But even if the critical mass of Trump’s apparent effort to trade U.S. money for dirt on a political rival reaches hurricane proportions, Trump will not go quietly. To the contrary. Think feral cat cornered in a back alley. Trump has already floated the idea of executing those involved in blowing the whistle on his under-the-table deal with Ukraine.

Punishing treason the old-fashioned way: Trump's new impeachable offense is threatening the life of a CIA officer

In order to maximize the political punch that comes with impeachment proceedings, Democrats must abandon the “when they go low, we go high” platitude. With all due respect to former first lady Michelle Obama, those days are long gone. If House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and his congressional backup singers are not willing to fight in the mud, Democrats will be forever eating Republican dust.

In 2016, Trump’s run for the presidency was motivated by narcissism and greed. In 2020, Trump needs the protection that comes with reelection. Don’t expect him to go from a solid gold toilet to an industrial prison urinal without a fight.

Michael J. Stern, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, was a federal prosecutor for 25 years in Detroit and Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelJStern1