All of the entropy, discord, gaslighting, angst, anxiety, social unrest, wasted resources, etc.—the result of this senseless debacle—was as easy as falling off a log avoidable. None of it needed to or would have happened but for the unwillingness of one man to do the responsible, ethical, legal, obvious, simplest thing: return the damn documents.
The DOJ did not want this prosecution. There was not a thing the least bit political about it. They afforded the former president ample opportunity to just hand the contraband over and let that be the end of it. This horrendous and embarrassing stain on American history was brought about by the pathological puerility and selfishness of Donald Trump who, rather than take the smooth, painless and required path, instead persisted with his crimes, enlisted others in a criminal conspiracy, dared the DOJ to indict, and ultimately left them no other choice.
For that we have disingenuous politicians and pundits blaming President Biden and fomenting civil war, a still further divided and angrier populous, nearly inevitable violence, and an ex-president that will likely, and deservedly, spend the last years of his life in Federal prison while society also bears the burden of his unrelenting habit of holding himself despotically above the law.
I, for one, am mentally and emotionally exhausted.