What you and I know to be criminal acts are just ‘differences of opinion’ to the political class, who do not feel bound by the rules they make for us ‘little people.’
I’d like to see Hillary go down. I’d like to see DC mucked out (with a nuke if necessary) but the consequences for subsequent elections and for what remains of the Republic could be very bad.
There are so many laws that pretty much everybody is a felon, esp. anyone with ambition or achievements. If politicos face prosecution after leaving office or losing an election, then the civil war is inevitable.
If holding them to the proper standard makes CWII inevitable, then perhaps we need to make that clear (and be prepared and determined to follow through), and to not shirk from our responsibility to insist upon and enforce the idea, the standard, that those who choose to represent us be held accountable to the same laws that apply to the rest of us. No exceptions.
If the laws are too stringent for them, then they are too stringent for the rest of us as well.
I believe that, once it is made clear that they are to be held strictly accountable, the consequences you fear would actually amount to having better candidates and other public servants representing and working for us, people who understand their role and awesome responsibility. Statesmen, rather than just politicians. Public servants rather than just bureaucrats.