Rick Wilson Urges Democrats to Pursue Layered Legal Pressure on Trump Instead of Impeachment

Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson argued on The Lincoln Project podcast that impeachment and removal of President Donald Trump are unlikely because Democrats will still lack the necessary votes in the Senate. Instead, Wilson offered a different path he says would be more effective at creating legal and political pressure on Trump and his allies.

Wilson frames the strategy as one that treats the administration like a criminal enterprise. He recommends beginning with investigations of lower-level staffers and working upward. The idea is to prosecute or otherwise legally entangle small, expendable figures first — people who "can't pick [Trump] out of a lineup generally" and "can't afford to pay for their criminal defense." That pressure, Wilson predicts, will cause those staffers to unravel and potentially implicate higher-ranking officials.

• Start immediately after Democrats secure a majority: Wilson says investigations should begin "the minute the polls close and we know we've got a majority."
• Focus on small, prosecutable targets first: He calls this "small ball," drawing an explicit comparison to how mob prosecutions build cases by flipping lower-level players.
• Push through executive privilege claims: Wilson told listeners to "steamroll" executive privilege and to proceed with investigations even if the White House blusters.

Wilson acknowledged that this approach amounts to "lawfare," but argued that the tactic is legitimate and likely to be effective given the financial and legal vulnerabilities of lower-level staff. He also suggested the White House might not be able or willing to protect all staffers, increasing the chance that prosecutions would lead to cooperation or political damage higher up the chain.

Wilson's proposal is a strategic pivot: use concentrated, layered investigations aimed at lower-level personnel to create legal and political pressure that could ripple upward, rather than relying on an impeachment effort that he says would fail in the Senate. The stated aim is to weaken Trump's enabling network and force Republicans to defend those ties in the run-up to 2028.