Editor’s Note. This editorial appeared June 16 in the Charleston City Paper.
Charleston police this week circulated a photo of two women wanted for shoplifting from two downtown stores. If they are caught, they are sure to be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Last week, a federal grand jury in Florida found probable cause to believe former President Donald Trump violated the law by mishandling federal documents by taking boxes and boxes of the nation’s secrets from the White House to his residence. These boxes were stored in unsecured locations, including a bedroom and gaudy bathroom that people without security clearances or our enemies could have accessed and hurt the United States of America.
What happened last week in Florida — and when Trump surrendered and pleaded not guilty — was historic because no president has ever faced federal criminal charges.
In an analysis, CNN called remarks by Trump after his court appearance to be “the most chilling and demagogic ever uttered by a major figure in modern American history:”
Trump said at a fundraiser after his not guilty plea: “Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country. Very sad thing to watch, a corrupt sitting president had his top political opponent arrested on fake and fabricated charges of which he and numerous other presidents would be guilty, right in the middle of a presidential election in which he’s losing very badly.”
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a classic, terribly negative, narcissistic political spin. Trump is wrongly blaming someone else for his own alleged acts of corruption and theft of federal documents. If you read the 49-page indictment, it doesn’t take too long to realize that there’s enough substance there — not “fake and fabricated charges” — that it must be judged by a jury.
Trump, like the shoplifters in Charleston, should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law because in America we believe in the rule of law, not the rule of man. We respect the law, not loyalty to a person. That’s the American way — due process by law.
But Trump’s case is simply scary — not just because he’s running again for president or that he seems incapable of remorse after getting caught and bragging about how he had secrets. What’s really scary is how he’s fighting the charges in the court of public opinion. Just as he inflamed insurrectionists to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a flagrant attempt to keep power after losing the 2020 election, he’s trying to inflame Americans now to support the cult of Trump, not the democracy that too many have died to defend.
Resist. Trump is a man, not a mountain. If he broke the law — in Florida, Georgia, New York or wherever — he must be held accountable. Just as more than 1,000 people have or are facing charges in the Jan. 6 riot (78 have been found guilty), Trump must face the same music. And if a jury of his peers finds him guilty, he should go to prison, orange jumpsuit and all.
And if that happens, all Americans — Republicans, Democrats and independents — should support the results of the rule of law. There should be no celebrations or civil disturbances. There should be the quiet recognition that in America, the rule of law trumps the rule of any one man.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
It’s very sad that a South Carolina journalist has to resort to quoting CNN and relying on that source to report on a case not yet brought to trial, without a trial of his peers, nor evidence and witnesses for hid defense before this article has found hm guilty. You find him guilty before you hear his defense. Whatever happened to innocent before being found guilty?