As I’ve written before, Trump’s recorded demand that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find 11,780 votes”—along with his not-so-veiled threat that Raffensperger faced a “big risk” of criminal prosecution if he failed—was already quite legally problematic. Add this threat to the fake-electors scheme, and the elements of a criminal conspiracy come clearly into view.

At the end of the day, it is highly likely that the key question for federal and state prosecutors won’t be Can we make a case against Trump? Instead, it will be Should we make a case against Trump? Should the government seek to prosecute and imprison a former president of the United States? Does that calculus change if that former president is also the current front-runner for the Republican nomination?

I won’t pretend the answers are easy. I won’t pretend prosecution isn’t a risk. But as the evidence accumulates, the moral and political imperative becomes apparent. The former president isn’t a king. He’s a citizen of a constitutional republic, and citizens should stand trial when the evidence indicates they may have committed serious crimes.