Few things resonate with almost every American like this maxim: No one is above the law, not even the president.
Nothing illustrates that critical principle better than the indictment this week of Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 insurrection and attempt to undermine the election.
The 45-page felony indictment is absent the bluster and spin that pundits across the political spectrum have wielded as the months have gone by after Trump persistently and systematically worked to thwart the will of American voters and make himself the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Set aside all the swagger and rant about “witch hunts” and “weaponization” of the justice system. Trump tried desperately to defraud the nation and its institutions to reverse his unarguable election loss. He conspired to destroy the very thing the country is built on: free and fair democratic elections.
His defense, since his deceits were first outed, is tried and true across generations and across the world: Play the victim.
Trump has for most of his adult life publicly turned the tables on dozens of accusers in attempts to undermine the legitimacy of accusations against him.
He’s used the tactic successfully for years in his business and personal relationships, often even avoiding even the appearance of reckoning.
Whether you heartily and eagerly agree with news reports of this latest criminal indictment against Trump, or whether you skeptically wonder about how politicized the investigation and grand jury indictment might be: Read the indictment for yourself.
The document doesn’t stray from the actual deeds Trump committed, directed, demanded and even admitted to.
For months, the media has faithfully documented Trump’s energetic and disastrous attempts to work with others, and even try to force others, to join his campaign to reverse the 2020 election.
What the indictment offers is a sober, solid and well-documented explanation of much of what’s already known. Trump purposely and knowingly violated several laws in hopes of circumventing statute, the Constitution and even reality.
The grand jury found, after exhaustive investigation and testimony, that Trump conspired to obstruct the election process in a purposeful and systematic way.
That’s not only immoral, it’s illegal.
Almost every American who watched television or read a newspaper since the 2020 Election was witness to Trump methodically working to undermine first confidence, and then the election itself.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified,” according to the indictment.
In simple terms, Trump lost the election and refused to accept the decision of American voters, and then he tried to change the results in his favor.
Trump failed. Trump got caught. Trump must face the consequences for having broken the law, just like any other American would have to do.
He has every opportunity to reach out to his fans and supporters and continue to milk them for their meager salaries and savings to amass the biggest and best legal defense he can obtain.
And that legal challenge — which, as reported this week, has already cost his supporters more than $40 million just this year — will have every opportunity to persuade a court of Trump’s peers that these four counts of felony charges are without merit.
Until then, all Americans get to act as jurors in determining for themselves whether the evidence offered in the indictment is convincing of what we have for more than two years seen and heard for ourselves.
Read the indictment at ow.ly/fxi950PquE5 and reach your own conclusion as to whether Trump, like everyone one of us, is not above the law.
I encourage everyone to take the time to read the
latest indictment. It is easy to understand and
doesn’t take long to read. I was amazed at the lengths Trump took to overturn the election. He
darn well knew he didn’t win in 2020!