This is meant to be red meat for conjecture junkies who have time now that the big indictment has come and Trump has been arraigned. Given the requirements laid out in the Constitution, what options might have been available to the former president short of his present course? Donald Trump chose a run-for-pardon campaign in an attempt to outrun his crimes. In so doing, he also made the decision to put himself in a position to expose himself to the various courts in which those crimes were committed in a Roy Cohn-inspired gamble to spit in the eyes of his accusers.