Is there a way for states to bring a criminal prosecution against Trump, if the Republicans won't?

[LanternWaste]

28. In '74, the USSC agreed to decide a question raised by the White House

In '74, the USSC agreed to decide a question raised by the White House of whether a sitting President could be criminally prosecuted. The Watergate grand jury had named Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator, an action his lawyers said was a constitutional ''nullity,'' beyond the grand jury's authority. The issue was fully briefed and argued, but was never decided (Chief Justice Burger said it was not necessary to address that particular question in order to resolve the executive privilege issue).

The lawyer for the prosecution argued the relevant sentence in Article I (the one our own handful of armchair "experts" consistently alleges rules out any prosecution-- you know the little fellas: they interpret any disagreement with their premise as ignorance of the constitution-- an irony of gold standard) was simply the framers' way of insuring that an impeached official could not raise a double-jeopardy objection to a subsequent prosecution. He said the sentence applied to all officials who are subject to impeachment, not just the President, and so should not be interpreted as making impeachment the exclusive avenue for bringing criminal charges against a sitting President.

And bear in mnd, both VP Burr and VP Agnew and were indicted while sitting vice presidents.