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Aug 22, 2023

Trump indictment sets dangerous precedent, says Wall Street Journal editorial board

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal is arguing that the indictment of former President Trump sets a dangerous precedent for candidates’ ability to contest election results in the years to

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal is arguing that the indictment of former President Trump sets a dangerous precedent for candidates’ ability to contest election results in the years to come.

While the conservative editorial board called Trump’s actions and rhetoric after the 2020 election “deceitful and destructive,” it questioned whether the conduct amounted to criminal behavior.

“There is no evidence tying Mr. Trump to the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys who planned to, and did, breach the U.S. Capitol that day. That was the worst offense against democracy, and more than 1,000 people have been prosecuted in connection with it,” the editorial board wrote.

“This potentially criminalizes many kinds of actions and statements by a President that a prosecutor deems to be false. You don’t have to be a defender of Donald Trump to worry about where this will lead. It makes any future election challenges, however valid, legally vulnerable to a partisan prosecutor.”

Trump’s federal indictment might have “criminalized the actions by Al Gore and George W. Bush to contest the Florida election result in 2000,” the newspaper added.

Trump was charged Tuesday with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

He is expected in court Thursday and has repeatedly said the various investigations he faces related to his business dealings, his handling of classified documents and his conduct after the 2020 election, are political in nature.

“We’ve argued that an indictment of a former President should be based on serious charges with enough evidence to convince most Americans that it is justly brought,” the Journal wrote of the latest legal trouble Trump faces.

“We doubt most Republicans will see this one in that light, and that means we are headed for more difficult and dangerous months ahead.”

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