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“No one will be above the law.”
This should be an easy principle to agree with, no matter who is saying it. The rule of law should apply equally to everyone. That includes presidents, former presidents, and presidential candidates.
Would it surprise anyone that the quotation above was provided by then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016? He was highly critical of opponent Hillary Clinton’s handling, and mishandling, of classified information through the use of a personal email server as U.S. secretary of state. He made it a defining part of his campaign, and declared that “one of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.”
But now that Trump is on the other side of this legal equation, having been accused of several crimes related to his own handling and mishandling of classified information, he is singing a different tune. Gone is the 2016 call for the “best protection of classified information” and the promise to “enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information.” Those comments have been replaced with excuses, and attacks on the people and institutions who would hold him to his own past standard, that no o ne will be above the law.
He and his allies would have us believe that the recently released 37-count indictment against him is somehow a “witch hunt” or a “weaponization” of the U.S. Department of Justice. As the indictment rightly points out, however, Trump used to believe — or at least used to say — that no one should be above the law specifically relating to the protection of classified material. We’d suggest that this prosecution is neither a witch hunt nor a weaponization of justice, but rather, the rule of law working as it should.
Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida on charges that include willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice through efforts to keep documents and conceal them from a grand jury. An aide also faces several charges. They are both presumed innocent until proven guilty (not guilty pleas were entered Tuesday). That is how our justice system works.
The U.S. is not being turned into a “banana republic” because a former president is being charged with crimes. That claim from Trump world gets the situation completely backward. A country where leaders’ alleged crimes proceed with impunity, now that would more accurately reflect a banana republic.
As always, lots of things can be true at once. Yes, there is a case to be made that the federal government generally over-classifies information. And yes, the discovery of classified materials at the homes and offices of current President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence point to a federal system for safeguarding classified documents that is clearly in need of improvement. The investigation into Pence recently concluded without any criminal charges, and without any evidence that Pence previously knew about the documents or tried to conceal them from the government. A special counsel continues to investigate Biden’s handling of documents.
If Biden is found to have broken the law, he should be charged too. If his son Hunter is found to have broken tax or gun laws as part of an ongoing investigation, he should be charged. This should not be a difficult concept, and it is not a reason for Trump to avoid accountability.
A near-constant these days is the drastically different reaction people have to the same information and events, depending on their political leanings or where they get their information. Before jumping to one of these competing narratives concerning Trump’s indictment, we’d encourage everyone to read the nearly 50-page document for themselves. We find it to be pretty damning, but you don’t have to take our word for it. The timeline, evidence and alleged crimes are there for everyone to assess. Take this paragraph from the indictment, for example:
“The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack,” the indictment asserts. “The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”
Justice is a process, and this indictment is but one part of that process. Much remains unknown. At least one thing is certain, however. In 2016, Donald Trump told America that no one should be above the law. We should listen to him.
