Trump allies think he wants to run in 2020 so he can keep avoiding an indictment: report

In 2016, Donald Trump ran with the slogan, "Lock her up."

In 2020, he'll need a new slogan: "Don't lock me up."

It's clear, after all, that prosecutors in the Southern District of New York believe he directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to carry out the criminal hush money payments he coordinated in violation of campaign finance law ahead of his election. Cohen is going to prison for the crime, causing many to wonder why Trump shouldn't face the same punishment. And now some of the president's allies believe he'll run for re-election in 2020 in part because he fears that once he's no longer in office, he may be in serious legal jeopardy, according to a new report from the New York Times.

"While there is no legal consensus on the matter, Justice Department policy says that a president cannot be indicted while in office," the report noted.

Staying in office, then, could be his only get-out-of-jail-free card — a situation likely unfathomed by the drafters of the U.S. Constitution.

The report details the evidence Cohen has provided for Trump's involvement in the schemes. He has produced a series of checks, paid monthly in 2017, that he received from the president, his son Donald Trump Jr., or his CFO Allen Weisselberg. While they don't definitively prove Trump's knowledge of the scheme, Rudy Giuliani has admitted that the president repaid Cohen for the hush money.

The Times noted that several of the checks have not yet been located. In 2018, federal agents raided Cohen's properties and seized large amounts of evidence, which have since been returned to him.

If, as the Times reports, Trump fears his legal exposure, he has more to worry about than just SDNY. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation remains open, and though much recent speculation has suggested that Trump won't be criminally implicated in the probe's findings, there's really no way to be sure until Mueller has his final say.

And other perils await the president. New York Attorney General Letitia James has made it clear since her campaign that she has the president and his family in her sights — and it's far from clear she's obligated to refrain from indicting the president. Democrats in Congress, too,  are doggedly pursuing evidence of the president's potential wrongdoing. With so many investigators encircling him, it would be shocking if Trump weren't hoping to find a way out.