I enter every year with optimism, but when it comes to rich and powerful white men being held accountable for their alleged crimes, I try not to be fanciful when considering likely outcomes.

Which is why days into 2022, I tweeted: “I worry the people I like on MSNBC are setting themselves up for a world of hurt over Donald. Ain’t it clear by now nothing happens to that man?”

Months later, for all the news coverage surrounding an investigation into Donald Trump led by the Manhattan district attorney, it looks as though the end result is the same: he will face no real consequences for his alleged crimes.

Late last month, Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, two senior prosecutors on the team that’s been investigating the former president, reportedly resigned one day after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg informed them that he wasn’t prepared to move forward with criminal charges.

Over the weekend, the New York Times published a detailed account of the weeks of internal debate that took place within the office over the strength of the evidence against Trump and whether they could prove he committed financial crimes in court.

Apparently, Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., deliberated for months before ultimately deciding to move toward an indictment, but less than two months into his tenure, Bragg reversed that decision. However, Bragg has maintained that the three-year inquiry is continuing. Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for Bragg, said, “This is an active investigation and there is a strong team in place working on it. According to Filson, the inquiry was now being led by Susan Hoffinger, the executive assistant district attorney in charge of the office’s Investigation Division.

But if Bragg has no plans to extend the grand jury investigation beyond April, then that point is moot. It sounds like she’s just there to wrap up what now seems like a dead investigation. I prefer people who give up to speak plainly about it. Politicians tend to not speak like real human beings, though.

Before they left their positions, Dunne and Pomerantz initially planned to charge Trump with the crime of “scheming to defraud” over falsely inflating his assets on the statements of financial condition used to obtain bank loans. They ultimately switched to charging Trump with conspiracy and falsifying business records — specifically his financial statements — because it seemed easier to prove.

“It’s a righteous case that ought to be brought,” Dunne reportedly told Bragg.

I’d like to think so, too, but those in control now feel differently.

I’m not a lawyer, and I understand that America, by design, has a tax code and legal system that benefits alleged liars like Trump. NYT and CNN have each reported that Trump’s believed misstatements on financial documents did not cause lenders to lose money, but profit from them. Isn’t that always the trick with Trump? People look at him as a buffonish liar with questionable business practices, but allow him to function anyway because it boosts everyone else’s bottom lines, too?

That’s the same logic that gave him so much free news coverage in the 2016 election. You can still tell which political journalists on TV and in print miss him. It’s revolting, but what makes it all the more maddening is that once again, some elected officials are afraid to even try to hold Donald Trump accountable.

Months ago, when Trump was at one of his racist pep rallies accusing Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James of leading a “witch hunt” and being “racists,” I thought maybe, just maybe that man might be charged in New York. I didn’t necessarily anticipate a conviction, but Trump was essentially inciting insurrections in multiple cities should these two Black people with law degrees treat him like the criminal he’s long been accused of being. He was clearly worried, but I guess he had no reason to — at least on Bragg’s end.

I imagine Bragg finds himself in a difficult position, but he’s already backtracked on the promise to be a more progressive prosecutor. Now he won’t even try to charge a cartoon villain of crimes reported on again and again. Why won’t any of these people even try to take him on?

There are other investigations — namely Trump’s role in the Jan. 6th insurrection — but why can’t the Department of Justice even acknowledge that it’s investigating the tyrant that tried to overturn an election? Yes, the Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, is investigating Trump. How could she not when he was recorded asking for votes that didn’t exist in order to steal Georgia’s electoral votes that rightly went to Joe Biden. She said only a month ago, “We’re not here playing a game.”

I don’t doubt that, but a local DA should have more support against an American president that tried to facilitate an autocratic tilt for the nation.

Newer reporting has shown Trump knew his racist lies of election fraud were bogus but pushed them anyway.

Is that not a crime?

Congressman Adam Schiff, who served as an impeachment officer for Trump’s first impeachment and now works on the January 6th committee, appeared on CBS’ Face The Nation on Sunday and noted, “I think if anyone else had engaged in that conversation, they would be under investigation and it should be no different for the former president.”

Schiff specifically cited what Willis is now investigating — Trump’s call on the phone with the secretary of state in Georgia demanding he find 11,780 votes.

When a sitting congressman has to ask the Department of Justice to do something about Trump (i.e. do its job), it is just as much a testament to Trump’s power as it is a statement of how none of these goofy people who can do something about Trump will even bother because they’re so concerned with their own positions.

I don’t think Donald Trump is truly invincible. The man is too stupid for words. He gets away with it for reasons mainly attributable to the privileges he enjoys, but as the choice by the Manhattan DA to not to prosecute him along with the reluctance of the DOJ to even announced an investigation into him both illustrate, Trump’s greatest strength is really that so many cowards won’t even bother to take a swing at the king.

Until someone changes that reality, I’ll continue limiting my beliefs that anything will happen to Donald Trump besides him being given more encouragement to run for president again.