Peter Van Buren

Trump’s indictment is a tempest over bookkeeping

Donald Trump (Credit: Getty images)

The American rule of law, which seems so precious to holier-than-thou Democrats these days, depends above all on one thing: a belief among the majority that while no one is above the law, it will be applied fairly to those it does affect. Whether you loathe Trump or love him, you know this: what is happening in Manhattan right now is unfair and inconsistent with a nation that once prided itself on believing in the rule of law. Who amongst Americans is still a believer today?

The previously sealed indictment shows that Donald Trump was charged with 34 felony counts for falsification of business records. This crime is normally prosecuted in New York as a misdemeanour. But Bragg’s office apparently bumped up all the charges to felonies on the grounds that the conduct was intended to conceal another underlying crime: violating election finance law (‘with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof’).

Written by
Peter Van Buren
Peter Van Buren is the author of ‘We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People’, ‘Hooper’s War: A Novel of WWII Japan’ and ‘Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the 99 Percent’.

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