It’s no wonder Trump ran amok during his presidency, and it’s a small wonder he didn’t crown himself king. Electing Trump president was like appointing a mob boss the chief of police. As for his recent paper transgression, he’ll probably walk free on that, too. In order to stick Trump with having violating the Presidential Records Act, you’d have to prove criminal intent, a challenging barrier for prosecutors to clear. Today, the New York Times reported that possible classified documents were in the 15-box haul he took back to Florida. He’ll probably avoid legal exposure there, too.

The anecdotes about shredded and flushed pieces of White House paper resonate so grandly because, at one level, ink markings on sheets of paper is all the law really is. If you violate the law, the piece of paper doesn’t come after you. It takes an investigator, a prosecutor and potentially even a jury for the wheels of justice to punish you for defying what was written. Over Trump’s entire career, what’s written on bits of papers has been only a nuisance to him. A law, a regulation, a bank loan, a finely drawn business contract, or even a marriage contract is just a piece of paper to Trump, something he can disregard at will. There’s a price to be paid for ignoring what these papers say, of course. But in Trump’s mind, that’s what lawyers are for: To file bits of paper of his own, false though they might be, to battle other bits of paper.