| While we wait to see if — or more likely when — Donald Trump is indicted in the 2020 election investigation, I've been talking to former federal prosecutors about the case. One question I ask them: What's the argument for indicting a former president? Here's what they said. Yes, he should at least be charged. Because based on what we know, he tried to overturn the results of an election, the central tenet of democracy, said Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor who has worked under multiple administrations. "It is pretty apparent he tried to undermine an election that Joe Biden won," Parker said. She's now a lawyer at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan advocacy group that focuses on authoritarian threats and building more-resilient democratic institutions. She said that charging Trump, even while he's running for president again, gets at another key question of democracy: Do we really have a system where no one is above the law? "If we as a democracy develop some special rule where you just can't charge the most powerful person in the country who did these things, then we really have to question whether our democracy is viable," she said. Possibly, he should be charged: The government has to be careful in such a divided country and charge Trump only with crimes it has clear evidence for, said Evan Gotlob, a former federal prosecutor who worked in the Trump administration (as well as Democratic administrations). "This shouldn't be done just to prove a point," he said. "Our job is to do the right thing — it's not to look at politics. If there is actual evidence a former president tried to maintain power when he shouldn't have, then yes, he should be charged. But the evidence better be there." Why did the investigation take so long? Trump could be indicted for his actions around the 2020 presidential election while the 2024 election season is already underway. The Washington Post reports that law enforcement officials at the top of government were initially very wary of investigating the former president and appearing too partisan. And they worried whether there was enough evidence to charge him. So it took more than a year for them to be convinced this investigation needed to happen, but eventually they agreed this was necessary. As for all the other investigations of Trump and his allies and "fake" electors, which all seem to be landing right now: These investigations are complicated and take time, Parker, the former federal prosecutor told me. The result is these are coming as Trump's presidential campaign gets going, adding fuel to his criticism that this is, indeed, partisan. Why experts aren't that concerned about Biden's and Trump's ages  (Photos by Demetrius Freeman and Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | President Biden and Donald Trump are already the two oldest U.S. presidents ever. And they're both running again. That has Americans worried. Only 1 in 3 Americans say Biden is mentally sharp and physically healthy enough to hold office, according to a Post-ABC poll in April. About half the country is confident in Trump's mental fitness, according to that poll. But experts on aging don't share the public's concerns. The Post's Michael Scherer and Lenny Bernstein talked to four experts, who all said that Biden and Trump are likely to live through the next term as president, for a few reasons: - They have already outlived so many American men born around the same time.
- They don't drink or smoke.
- They didn't grow up in poverty and now have access to the nation's best doctors.
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