Dealing with a criminal ex-president who is running for reelection has never happened before to the country, so there’s not an operating procedure to follow.
Bush didn’t run for re-election? Reagan didn’t run for re-election? The only criminal President you can say didn’t run for re-election was fucking Nixon.
Literally the point of this post is that we have, time and time again, chosen not to prosecute them, despite plenty of evidence.
Reagan making deals with terrorists in the Iran-Contra affair. Bush signing off on torture, which is a war crime.
It’s been a problem because we keep kicking the fucking can down the road to ignore the question of “can we prosecute a former President.”