The first-ever criminal indictment of a former American president creates a uniquely perilous moment for a polarized republic already repeatedly driven to the brink by the endless norm-busting of Donald Trump.
The prosecution of the 45th president – and his attempts to inflame a partisan firestorm to protect himself – are likely to consume America’s already poisoned politics, threaten to rock yet another presidential election and may pose the most critical challenge yet to its system of justice.
It is the latest stunning barrier shattered by the nation’s most unruly president. And it means that after a tumultuous four-year term, a historic two impeachments, an election falsely tainted by Trump’s lies about fraud and a mob attack by his supporters on Congress, a new national nightmare may be ahead.
In a momentous step Thursday, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump on what sources said were more than 30 counts related to business fraud in a case arising from hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels, possibly to defuse a scandal ahead of the 2016 election.
There is nothing in American history that approaches the tumult of the charging and possible trial and conviction of a former president – especially since Trump and his supporters are already claiming that the indictment represents the weaponized politicization of the justice system.
“We have been close before (but) we have never been at this point,” John Dean, former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate-era special counsel, told CNN. “No prior president – former, sitting or otherwise – has ever been indicted.”
Given the extreme national political estrangement exacerbated by Trump, this case is likely to leave the country changed however it turns out. There will be fears, for instance, that it will crush one of the last remaining precedents for…
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