Donald Trump’s decades of evading accountability are over.
A grand jury in New York on Thursday voted to hand down the first ever indictment of an ex-US President — a momentous decision that threatens to tear even deeper divides in a nation already polarized by its former leader.
Trump is expected to appear in New York next week to be formally charged in the case, which is related to an alleged hush money payment schemeinvolving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 presidential election. The indictment is the latest stunning twist of Trump’s tumultuous life and political career, and is a coda to a presidency that constantly tore at the limits of his office and saw him become the first-ever US president to be impeached twice.
It also ensures that the next US election in 2024, in which Trump is a candidate, will be tainted in the eyes of millions of his supporters who already believe his lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump is claiming that the indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, is an example of political persecution designed to prevent his White House return. In the wake of the incitement and lies from the ex-president that triggered a mob assault on the US Capitol two years ago, there will be fears of more violence. Police in New York have already increased security around courthouse facilities.
Most fundamentally, this represents a grave moment for the United States, since Trump is sure to seek to discredit the legal system in the same way that he sought to shatter faith in the political system after losing the 2020 election. There is no tradition in the world’s most powerful democracy for former presidents to be prosecuted, so the country’s unity and institutions are in for a fateful test.
Trump has flown close to the wind for decades. His lack of shame and refusal to be intimidated as well as a constant posture of attack has meant he got away with behavior that would have doomed other business tycoons or politicians many years ago. But now he has to face the music. Like any other person who is indicted, Trump enjoys the presumption of innocence. The pressure on Bragg meanwhile is extraordinary given the gravity of a historic first criminal charge against an ex-president. If he fails to convict Trump -- whenever a trial takes place -- he will surely be accused of a disastrous overreach that damaged his country.
There are many legal experts who worry that this particular case against Trump may be questionable and whether it justifies this extraordinary historic step. The indictment remains under seal but the likely charge of falsifying business records is usually only a misdemeanor.
Bragg may be seeking to prove that by making the hush payment, Trump may have breached the law by seeking to improperly influence the outcome of a federal election. This might be a fairly straightforward case to make to a jury, but it would be a harder sell in the wider court of public opinion. Trump has been preparing the ground for months and clearly believes that he can spin the indictment to portray himself as a victim of political persecution and to boost his Republican primary bid.
Yet does a wider national electorate really want a president who has been indicted? And this case may not even represent Trump’s worst legal threat. There are clear signs he could also be indicted in other investigations, including over his hoarding of classified documents and his attempt to steal President Joe Biden’s election victory in the key swing state of Georgia. Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases. But he could be facing a legal morass.
Despite Trump’s threats, the extreme reactions of his supporters in Congress and the new national political nightmare to come, Thursday’s indictment went some way to answering a question that is fundamental to the survival of American democracy.
Is everyone — even an ex-president — equal under the law?
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