Facing criminal charges in New York, Miami and Washington and, quite possibly this week in Georgia, Donald Trump holds the dubious distinction of being the first president – current or former — to be indicted. But three others have stood on the precipice of being formally charged with a crime and managed to avoid it.
One sitting president was actually placed under arrest. That would be Ulysses S. Grant, an accomplished horseman who loved to race his horse-drawn carriage through the streets of Washington.
District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Officer William West, a once-enslaved Black man who fought during the Civil War, had been assigned to investigate reckless carriage drivers after a woman and her son were run over and badly injured. Not long into his assignment, and just a few blocks from the White House, West looked up and saw a carriage barreling toward him.
When he raised his hand, the carriage came to a halt, and West saw Grant holding the reins. West told the former commanding general of the Union Army he was setting a bad example; Grant said it wouldn’t happen again.
But the next night, West stopped Grant a second time. And when the president said he did not know he had been going too fast, the officer refused to let him weasel out of it, West said in a 1908 interview with the Washington Star.
“I am very sorry Mr. President to have to do it, for you are the chief of the nation and I am nothing but a policeman,” West recalled saying. “But it is my duty, sir, and I will have to place you under arrest.”
Grant was taken to the police station where he posted a $20 bond and was released. When his case was called the next day, the president was a no show. Grant thus forfeited his $20 and that was the end of it, the Washington Star reported.
‘An unindicted co-conspirator’
A century later, President Richard Nixon faced far more serious charges stemming from the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and its subsequent coverup.
Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski obtained convictions against Nixon’s chief of staff Bob Haldeman, chief domestic adviser John Ehrlichman and Attorney General John Mitchell. Jaworski, who died in 1982, wrote in his book, “The Right and the Power,” that he had no doubt the federal grand jury wanted to indict Nixon, too.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
In a sweeping indictment Jaworski had already obtained, the grand jury famously called Nixon “an unindicted co-conspirator” for his attempt to cover up the Watergate burglary, a clear sign it thought the president was criminally liable.
“But they didn’t indict him because we were right in the middle of the (Senate) impeachment proceeding,” said New York attorney Nick Akerman, a member of the special prosecutor’s team. “And Jaworski believed that the impeachment proceedings should go first.”
Jaworski’s team also convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to order Nixon to turn over the highly incriminating tapes from the system the president had installed to record conversations in the Oval Office.
Facing certain impeachment, Nixon resigned from office on Aug. 9, 1974. This meant there was nothing stopping Jaworski from asking the grand jury to indict the former president.
But in a televised address one month later, President Gerald Ford told the nation: “Richard Nixon and his loved ones have suffered enough and will continue to suffer no matter what I do.” Ford granted Nixon “a full free and absolute pardon” for any crimes he may have committed over a five-year period ending the day he resigned.
Jaworski had his staff research the issue to see whether he could challenge the pardon and still indict the former president. He eventually chose not to do so.
‘In fact, it was wrong’
President Bill Clinton came close to being criminally charged for giving false testimony during a Jan. 17, 1998, deposition, part of a lawsuit filed against him by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee. Jones claimed Clinton sexually harassed her while he was governor. Her lawsuit would later be dismissed.
But during the deposition, Clinton was asked about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. “I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky,” Clinton testified. “I’ve never had an affair with her.”
Independent counsel Kenneth Starr, initially appointed to investigate Clinton’s ties to a failed land venture known as Whitewater, turned his attention to Clinton’s testimony regarding Lewinsky.
On Aug. 17, 1998, Clinton was to give videotaped testimony to a federal grand jury and respond to questions posed by members of the independent counsel’s office. Just hours before that was to happen, FBI agents informed the counsel’s office that genetic markers from a semen stain found on one of Lewinsky’s dresses matched Clinton’s DNA.
Later that day, after his grand jury appearance ended, Clinton confessed to the nation. “Indeed, I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate,” he said. “In fact, it was wrong.”
Starr was later replaced as independent counsel by Robert Ray, and all signs pointed to Ray obtaining a perjury indictment against Clinton after he left office. But on his last day as president, Clinton worked out a deal with the independent counsel’s office.
Ray agreed not to pursue charges and Clinton admitted to giving false testimony during his deposition in the Jones case. The president also agreed to pay $25,000 in fines and accept a five-year suspension of his Arkansas bar license.
“He has admitted he knowingly gave evasive and misleading answers to questions in the Jones deposition and that his conduct was prejudicial to the administration of justice,” Ray said when announcing the agreement. “The nation’s interests have been served and therefore I decline prosecution.”
So, Clinton never had to pose for a mugshot or be fingerprinted. And there was no prospect of court appearances and a possible trial of sensational proportion.
Trump faces all of that and more.
“The indictment of Trump is of tremendous significance,” said presidential historian David Greenberg, a professor at Rutgers University.
“It’s important that we reaffirm the Watergate slogan, ‘No one is above the law,’” he said. “Trump’s behavior should be assessed like that of any other citizen. An indictment affirms the a former president won’t receive special treatment. It is now up for the justice system to judge him fairly.”
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