footnote from Mueller report... you tell me:
A possible remedy through impeachment for abuses of power **would not substitute for potential criminal liability after a President leaves office. Impeachment would remove a President from office, but would not address the underlying culpability of the conduct or serve the usual purposes of the criminal law**. Indeed, the Impeachment Judgment Clause recognizes that **criminal law plays an independent role in addressing an official’s conduct**, distinct from the political remedy of impeachment. See U.S. CONST. ART. l, § 3, cl. 7. Impeachment is also a drastic and rarely invoked remedy, and **Congress is not restricted to relying only on impeachment, rather than making criminal law applicable to a former President**, as OLC has recognized. A Sitting President’s Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution, 24 Op. O.L.C. at 255 (“Recognizing an immunity from prosecution for a sitting President would not preclude such prosecution once the President’s term is over or he is otherwise removed from office by resignation or impeachment.”).