“what do you mean, “will effectively become illegitimate”? It already is.”
What I mean is, even the charade will be over if Hillary walks. Any pretense of a legitimate government will fall away, if this crime is allowed to go unpunished. It will be the final nullification of the rule of law in this country, and anarchy will reign.
The alternative to the end of law isn't always anarchy. Tyranny is the other consequence. As long as the elite can command the military and LEOs, whether ours or the UN's to shoot American citizens and drone our towns and jackboot our homes, they will be able to retain control for a couple of years.
If the fix is in, you can bet that the FBI and DOJ will spin the findings to minimize the damage politically to Hillary. They will spread the blame around including to the State Department that allowed her to operate a private server to conduct official business. The bottom line will be a slap on the wrist.
The Dems and the MSM will assert that Hillary commited some minor infractions that the VRWC made into a witch hunt. It will be treated as just another Benghazi. Hillary will be the victim of another politically motivated attack seeking to prevent the election of our first woman President.
Look for some weak guilty charges against Hillary creating the impression that justice was done.
The federal government could collapse entirely, and many people would not notice any change. We have layers of law and order givers in this country. The fact that feds are running without moral justification doesn't mean that the states and localities are.
Just saying, there are multiple safeguards against literal anarchy, all the way down to your neighborhood.
Even if she walks, nobody can/will do anything about it.