Consider this confession of sorts by White House advisor and bigoted asshole Stephen Miller (boldface mine):

[Stephen] Miller doesn’t think the pardons are going to be enough to protect him, according to people who’ve spoken to him about the matter since last year.

In these private, candid moments, Miller has told others that he’s convinced Democrats are going to be coming after him, his family, and his colleagues maybe for the rest of his days. Miller has talked about civil lawsuits, and Capitol Hill investigations and subpoenas – but perhaps the thing that stands tallest in his mind is local and state prosecutors who he says want to put him in a “prison cell.” Federal pardons can make it harder to prosecute former U.S. appointees locally, but such clemency does not preempt local and state prosecutions and investigations in the same way that it would federal probes.

Miller has also privately said he’s worried that Democratic members of a future federal administration may try to get creative, and hunt for ways to get around Trump’s federal clemency actions. (Trump himself, thanks to his far-right pals on the Supreme Court, enjoys an expanded protection of presidential immunity; his underlings, however, don’t enjoy the same privileges… at least not yet!) Miller has also lamented the possibility that liberals will be filing lawsuits against him for years, if not decades, and complained about how the left will try to use “lawfare” to bleed him and his wife – former Trump official and current right-wing lifestyle podcaster Katie Miller – dry financially. (The Millers have a lot of money between them, and they lead at times extravagant lives and enjoy projecting an image of being some of the nation’s top MAGA socialites. Furthermore, multiple sources who’ve dined at different homes that the Millers have resided at over the years say their food was made by a private chef.)

Politicians in states like Illinois and Minnesota have all but told Miller to preserve his records.

I think much of this is a form of self-projection: this is the kind of thing Miller himself would do, so he thinks his political opponents will do this to him. I have seen little from professional Democrats over the years to think they will do this–though there have been a handful of state level Democrats who have been more aggressive. I really hope I’m wrong though and Miller receives the (belated) justice he deserves.

Nonetheless, while Miller might think he is doing the (Dark) Lord’s work, he knows that millions of Americans think he is a de facto and likely de jure criminal. I imagine most of them do at some level.