get off scot-free

It is a disappointment to anyone tired of seeing Trump get off scot-free.

But the jury will soon hear that New York criminal law is not so naïve as to allow the ringleader of a criminal scheme to get off scot-free, simply because his minions did the deeds.

Iran, he added, would not get off “scot-free.”

Iran, he added, would not get off “scot-free with this aggression.”

As Slate’s Jeremy Stahl recently wrote, that interpretation would suggest “a criminal president could simply resign to receive an instant get-out-of-jail-free card. Or, if a president’s criminal conduct happened as he was leaving office and there was no time to impeach or convict, he would also get off scot-free.”