If you’re following politics these days, it almost seems necessary to have experience as a federal prosecutor. Former United States attorneys have become media stars. On cable news every night, you can find them explaining the nuances of criminal law as we try to sort out the latest breaking news involving Donald Trump and his inner circle.

This is not surprising given the way Trump’s presidency has unfolded.

Three of his former associates, including a former national security advisor, have entered guilty pleas in federal court. A former campaign chair faces dozens of criminal charges. Federal investigators recently executed a search warrant on Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen’s home, office, hotel room, and safety deposit box. Mueller’s investigation is likely to lead to more charges.

A key question, of course, is whether Trump was personally involved in any criminal wrongdoing — and, if so, whether he can be indicted while in office.

These are pressing matters, to say the least. But it is a mistake to assess the Trump presidency through a purely legalistic lens.

When it comes to the serious allegations and scandals engulfing the administration, it is essential to identify two separate tracks. One, of course, involves the criminal justice system. But the question to ask is not simply whether Trump is criminally liable. We ought to take a step back to recognize the breathtaking dimensions of Trump’s conduct and what they mean in a political context outside of the courtroom.

Publicly available information suggests Trump’s 2016 campaign was a successful effort to defraud American voters.

Consider recent news involving Trump’s eccentric one-time physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, as well as reporting about hush money paid to Stormy Daniels. Bornstein claims that Trump personally dictated a 2015 letter declaring he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” If this is correct, then Trump misrepresented his health to voters, creating the false perception that he had gotten an extraordinarily clean bill of health from a neutral physician.

Rudy Giuliani, who has been described as Trump’s lawyer (though he may be making himself a witness), said Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for $130,000 in hush money that Cohen paid to Stormy Daniels before the election to keep her alleged affair with Trump quiet.

If this is correct (and it is difficult to keep track of Giuliani’s shifting accounts) it suggests that Trump may have been involved in a scheme to prevent damaging information from seeing the light of day before the election. As Giuliani remarked, “Imagine if [the Stormy Daniels story] came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the…last debate.”

Indeed.

It’s also worth imagining what would have happened if voters had known, before the election, about Trump campaign connections to Russia — the now-infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, other contacts with Russian representatives, the fact that an FBI investigation into the Trump circle had already begun.

Commentators observe that news of Trump’s “public deceptions [is] surely relevant to his job as president…” Among other things, how could American trust and believe Trump “during a genuine crisis”? Trump’s deceptions also call into question the legitimacy of the 2016 election.

As the Washington Post’s Dan Balz observes, all presidential candidates — indeed, all people — lie and deceive at times.

But the deceptions surrounding Trump’s presidential campaign did not involve minor or insubstantial things. If voters had known the truth about these matters — hush payments to a porn actress, misrepresentations about the candidate’s health, contacts with Russians hoping to help Trump win — the nature of the election could have been fundamentally different.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was nothing less than a fraud on the American people.

I do not mean this in the criminal sense (although special counsel Robert Mueller has brought charges in connection with the Russia probe that involve fraud). I mean this in a political, or common sense, way. Donald Trump’s campaign was, at its core, based on lies.

Thanks to Trump’s deception, voters did not have basic information needed to make a fully informed decision — and we still don’t have all the information we need. Trump’s failure to disclose basic financial information makes it difficult to know precisely what conflicts of interest he may have, especially as his business continues to operate while he is in office.

New reports that Trump spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy properties in recent years naturally make us wonder where the massive cash inflow came from. Without transparency, we can’t know the answers.

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Perhaps because we tend to see so much of this through a legalistic framework, and because it is unclear as to whether Trump can be held legally accountable while in office, some observers aren’t sure whether this matters. Balz wonders whether “it bothers anyone that President Trump has been caught lying?”

We don’t have to be so passive. Here are some ways to insist that there are consequences for Trump’s actions:

• Journalists like Balz need to keep at it. Don’t let the central point get drowned out in the daily wash of new outrages. Trump ran a campaign rooted in deception. He has every reason to do so again in 2020 — and, in fact, he has made mendacity a centerpiece of his presidency. This is not normal. It is a direct threat to our constitutional democracy.

• Prominent Republicans — both in and out of office — must make clear this is not simply another partisan disagreement, but, instead, an attempt to undermine the very notion of objective reality.

• Ultimately, whether this matters depends on voters. If voters don’t mind being defrauded, then Trump will indeed be able to keep at it with impunity.

But there are signs that voters care. Trump’s approval ratings have rallied recently, but still remain in the low 40s. Republicans worry that Trump’s unpopularity will weigh them down in the upcoming midterm elections. Horror at Trump’s stances and rhetoric has been a central factor in energizing new activists.

Legality is not the only litmus test for Trump’s actions. Whether or not he committed criminal acts or impeachable offenses, what we already know is bad enough.

If Trump does not pay a political price — quite apart from any possible legal sanctions — for his fraud on the American people, he will surely employ the same tactics for the remainder of his presidency, and in his efforts to seek re-election. But if we decide this is unacceptable, then we can ensure he faces consequences — without having to wait to see what Mueller’s investigation may lead to.