Hot Air presents a guest post from Congressman Andy Biggs, a Republican from Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, representing eastern Maricopa County. Rep. Biggs also chairs the House Freedom Caucus, elected to that position last month. The views expressed do not represent Hot Air, Townhall, Salem Media Group, or its staff.

Recently, Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez suggested that we should “decarcerate” convicted felons who sit in American prisons. That’s a new one. Who knows where that boneheaded idea will end up, but Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, and the Democrats have come up with a better idea on how a person can avoid investigation, prosecution, and possible conviction for crimes: run for President of the United States.

Have you been selling influence or blackmailing foreign leaders for personal gain? Not to worry: you simply throw your hat into the field of presidential candidates. Apparently, the Democrats believe that the Executive Branch is then frozen out of investigating and prosecuting criminal conduct due to a conflict of interest. That is, because you might end up as the opposition party’s nominee, the sitting president and the executive agencies that otherwise would investigate you are paralyzed because no matter how compelling or public the evidence is against you, you are in a special class: a political opponent.

Wow! It’s like magic. There might be a video of you bragging about holding a country hostage unless that nation’s leader fires the investigator looking into your son’s participation in a corrupt energy company, but you have immunity because you are a potential political opponent.

It really is a superior way to live one’s life with impunity. It sure beats the heck out of having Democrats in Congress mobilizing to remove you from office because they are afraid that they can’t beat you in a re-election campaign.

And, it is preferable to having everyone that you know or who has supported you investigated or prosecuted, harassed by a Leftist press, or victimized by congressional leaders urging that her supporters verbally or physically accost President Trump’s backers.

It is ludicrous to argue that the President of the United States, the person that many Democrats have repeatedly said is “the Chief Law Enforcement Officer” of our country, should be foreclosed from enlisting all available resources to investigate crime and corruption.

When the corruption takes place in another country and spills over into America, particularly as in the 2016 Presidential election, we should expect that the President of the United States would enlist assistance from the subject state.

While we should demand that purely political excursions against political opponents be strictly prohibited – for instance, if a certain Democrat President allowed the Internal Revenue Service to attack conservative organizations and individuals or permitted the top brass of the intelligence community and police apparatus to investigate a presidential candidate in order to prevent his election – there should be investigations and prosecutions to deter a repeat of such heinous activities.

But, when the alleged corruption has been publicly admitted, and has already occurred, then Americans have the right to demand investigation and prosecution where appropriate. Even if the alleged criminal conduct was perpetrated by a political candidate or someone close to the candidate.

President Trump’s telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky, as has been stated by Zelensky himself, involved no pressure or quid pro quo. Zelensky is aware of the Ukrainian connection to the alleged corruption. Enlisting his help was not out of line. In fact, it is exactly what President Trump’s duty required of him.

As crazy as the notion that no one should ever be incarcerated as Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez contends, is the idea that one is immune from investigation and prosecution if the person is a political candidate for public office.

Hot Air welcomes the opportunity to publish guest posts from members of Congress and presidential candidates.