As with any other criminal defendant, Donald Trump deserves the presumption of innocence, no more and no less.
Thus, his noxious personality should not be held against him as the criminal justice system weighs whether he broke federal laws by holding on to classified government information after he left office, and then allegedly tried to hide the documents when law enforcement officials attempted to recover them.
But neither should he be given any breaks as a former president, who now holds the dubious distinction of being not only the most impeached while in office but the most indicted out of it.
Trump and his blindly loyal supporters are trying to claim that last week’s indictment by a federal grand jury is just more of the same political persecution Trump has suffered because of his unorthodox manner, his dedicated following among ultraconservatives and his presumptive lead for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.
That claim may have some merit with the earlier indictment this year in a New York court, given that the case was pursued by a Democratic district attorney in the generally liberal state. It can be argued that even if it’s true that Trump paid hush money to a porn star to cover up their affair, he would not be the first celebrity, or first political candidate, to try to keep his sexual peccadillos under wraps. And since his affairs with other women were already common knowledge when he ran successfully for president in 2016, it’s also possible that his motivation was not to impact that election but to avoid the embarrassment to and wrath of his wife.
This latest indictment, the first time the U.S. Justice Department has ever charged a former president with a crime, is another matter.
The 37-count indictment, to which Trump was asserting his innocence even before it was made public last week, alleges serious offenses that possibly could have compromised lives and the national security. It comes at the instigation not of a prosecutor, as in New York, with obvious political allegiances but from an independent counsel who operated freely of interference from either party.
The indictment alleges Trump intentionally retained hundreds of sensitive government documents that he illegally took with him from the White House to his Florida home at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office in January 2021. The records he stored included material on nuclear programs, defense and weapons capabilities of the U.S. and foreign governments and a Pentagon “attack plan,” prosecutors say
Even more damning is the indictment’s allegation that once confronted with this violation of federal records laws, rather than pleading ignorance and willingly returning the documents, Trump took steps to try to impede their recovery, including directing a personal aide to hide them not only from federal agents but even from Trump’s own lawyers.
If those allegations are true, Trump, for all of his present bluster, will be lucky if he can strike a deal with the prosecution to avoid prison time by accepting a lifetime ban from ever holding public office again. That’s what should have already happened — if the majority of Republican members in Congress had any respect for the democratic traditions of our nation — when Trump refused to accept his defeat in 2020 and instigated a violent uprising at the Capitol to try to hold onto the presidency.
Rather than plea bargain, though, Trump may insist on his day in court. That is his right. But he better prepare for lots of days, as state and federal investigations continue into other potentially serious offenses related to the 2020 election and its aftermath.
