Trump’s indictment has turned every American voter into a juror

And their verdict will involve democracy’s gravest crime

Since leaving office, Donald Trump has become the first former president to be indicted on criminal charges. PHOTO: NYTIMES
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To store all the accusations against Donald Trump would require a new wing of the Library of Congress. There are the allegations made against him before he became president, some of which were false. Then there are the ones from his four years in the White House, which resulted in two impeachments. Since leaving office, he has become the first former president to be indicted on criminal charges. There is the Manhattan case, which turns on falsifying business records, the Mar-a-Lago case, which concerns the handling of classified documents, and a looming case in Fulton County, Georgia, which is about an attempt to overturn the state’s election result. You may recall that Trump also lost a defamation case against a woman who accused him of sexual assault.

None of these compares to the latest indictment, issued by prosecutor Jack Smith on Tuesday. If proven, it will be the thing that Trump is remembered for. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, Ronald Reagan won the Cold War, Donald Trump went to prison for trying to steal an election.

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