Boston Sunday Globe

The Trump indictment­s are good for America and democracy

- By Renée Graham Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her @reneeygrah­am.

Four times in four months in four jurisdicti­ons, Donald Trump has been indicted on a total of 91 criminal charges that range from falsifying business records in New York to felony racketeeri­ng in Georgia.

And every single time an indictment was announced, someone declared it to be a “terrible” day for America.

“I’m glad that accountabi­lity is finally at Donald’s doorstep, but at the end of the day, it’s a very sad day for America in the fact that he’s the first president in U.S. history to be indicted, and it’s such a terrible look for the United States of America,” Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, told Newsweek after Trump’s first indictment, in April.

Indicting a former president accused of crimes meant to attack democracy, upend the electoral process, or skirt the rule of law isn’t terrible. But it would have been terrible if grand jurors in these four cases had made no recommenda­tions for legal ramificati­ons or accountabi­lity at all.

Nearly 50 years ago, in the most consequent­ial act of his brief presidency, Gerald Ford gave Richard Nixon “a full, free and absolute pardon . . . for all offenses against the United States which [Nixon] has committed or may have committed or taken part in” during his tenure in the White House.

Ford announced his decision a month after Nixon resigned rather than face probable impeachmen­t and possible removal from office for his role in the Watergate scandal. The disgraced former president, Ford said, “and his loved ones have suffered enough.”

Nixon didn’t suffer at all. He resigned rather than face congressio­nal repercussi­ons, and Ford slammed the door on any other legal redress. In showing mercy to his former boss, Ford claimed he was sparing the nation from the spectacle and pain of watching a former president on trial.

But that’s exactly what the nation needed in order to see justice at work. Instead, pardoning Nixon showed that a powerful and powerfully corrupt man, once elected to this nation’s highest office, was not beholden to the rule of law and was exempt from any accounting of responsibi­lity.

Some believe that pardoning Nixon cost Ford his bid for a full term in the White House in 1976. But the cost to this nation was immeasurab­ly higher. It empowered corruption at the highest levels among those who use power as a shield from prosecutio­n.

That’s the sentiment that seeps through Republican­s who certainly wouldn’t feel the same way if the surname on those indictment­s was Obama or Clinton.

Long before any of the Trump trials begin, some GOP candidates aren’t only defending the former president; they claim that if they are elected president, they will consider doing for Trump what Ford did for Nixon. (They seem to forget that Trump is their opponent for the nomination.)

“This is my commitment, on Jan. 20th, 2025, if I’m elected the next US president — to pardon Donald J. Trump for these offenses in this federal case,” Vivek Ramaswamy said after Trump was indicted in June for his alleged mishandlin­g of classified documents.

Of course, such promises are intended to appease Trump followers who demand from everyone the same deathless loyalty that Trump demands of his supporters.

Failure to pay toadying deference brings harassment and threats — which is exactly what’s happening to judges, district attorneys, and grand jurors handling Trump’s various legal cases.

Some, like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have even warned of potential violence as a reason to avoid indicting Trump.

It’s a smokescree­n, and being deterred by such threats would be kowtowing to terrorists. Grand jurors and prosecutor­s should be celebrated, not vilified, for blocking out the extremist noise and focusing only on the law.

Perhaps there’s been so little accountabi­lity in America that many people either fear it or don’t know what to make of it when it happens.

And while indictment­s are an important step, they are only an initial move toward the true accountabi­lity that will ultimately lie in the hands of juries. But in the shadow of a national nightmare of a presidency that will long haunt us, placing the law above the lawlessnes­s of one man might feel terrible to some, but it’s crucial for democracy and the nation.

 ?? CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP ?? The former president at the Iowa State Fair this month,
CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP The former president at the Iowa State Fair this month,

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States