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By the Editorial Board
The Editorial Board is an organization of opinion news experts whose reviews are based on experience, research, debate, and certain ingrained values. It is separate from the newsroom.
The former and likely long-lasting president of the United States is recently on trial in Lower Manhattan, the first criminal prosecution against an American elected to the highest office in the land. Donald Trump, who relentlessly undermined the fairness formula during his tenure and since, enjoys the same protections and promises of fairness and due process under the law that he sought to deny others during his tenure.
In the end, a jury of Americans will decide on Mr. Trump’s legal fate. It is possibly the only one of the four criminal cases against the former president that will go to trial before the November election. The charges are not the most serious of those he faces, the case will determine whether 12 of his fellow Americans will convict him of a felony, an outcome that the electorate more seriously.
During the first two days of the trial, Trump has presented his defense to the public, in brief appearances between his courtroom and the television cameras: he presents himself as the victim of unfair and politically motivated prosecutions. This defense is based on lies. Trump is not a victim. He is lucky to live in a country where the rule of law promises a presumption of innocence and strong rights for the accused.
One of the guiding principles of American revelry is that the law applies similarly to everyone. At the same time, prosecuting any current or former elected official requires being vigilant for bias and being aware of how the case will be perceived through the hearing. public. For this reason, judges and prosecutors have a legal responsibility to uphold strict criteria of fairness, to lessen the threat that they appear to be interfering in electoral politics through fraudulent cases to harm or favor one candidate over another.
The former president calls the four lawsuits he faces a “witch hunt” motivated by complicity and as part of a nefarious plan to save him from returning to the White House. He repeated this narrative even though prosecutions were initiated through other prosecutors around the world. And even though other grand juries, each made up of a random variety of out-of-state nationals, returned indictments that now have a total of 88 counts against them.
In the weeks leading up to the start of this trial, Trump argued, dishonestly, that the judge and prosecutor had treated him unfairly and that it would be up to him to get a fair trial in Manhattan because New Yorkers were unhappy. . skewed opposite to it. But the first few days of the trial, true to jury selection, have already demonstrated the wonderful care and respect with which everyone involved in the trial, except for Mr. Trump, has approached the process. Joshua Steinglass, a member of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, told prospective jurors Tuesday that the case “has nothing to do with non-public politics. “
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