Lessons for the prosecution of Trump from Pakistan, France and around the world

No one is above the law. That should be an obvious, irrefutable principle in a democratic country.

And in many countries it is. In recent days, as the historic criminal prosecution of former President Trump progresses in Manhattan, there have been numerous examples of countries challenging that principle by trying, convicting and, in some cases, imprisoning their top leaders for corruption, theft, bribery and other crimes.

Surely a rule-based democracy like the United States can be as principled as those other countries and bring a successful criminal case against a former head of state who broke the law. even before

10 days ago,

no current or former US president had ever been

indicated or

charged, much less convicted. Many Americans apparently believe that prosecuting a president is inappropriate or excessive. (As Richard Nixon was about to face indictment, he was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford, to preserve national “peace.”

Take France, on the other hand, where both presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac have been tried and convicted of corruption in recent years. It may not be a great testament to French democracy that they had to be persecuted, but to their country’s credit they were.

In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, who served three terms as prime minister, was convicted of tax fraud in 2012.

In South Africa, former President Jacob Zuma was accused of taking bribes in 2021; he risks 15 years in prison.

In South Korea, three former presidents have been convicted of corruption.

In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is prime minister and is at the same time on trial for bribery and fraud.

Good for those countries for holding or at least trying to hold their top leaders accountable for criminal misconduct. Done right, it can build trust in government and the law and serve the cause of equality and justice.

The United States should draw encouragement from those experiences as it embarks on a similar path for the first time.

But what is less often discussed in recent days, and what complicates the picture, is that there are also countries where the law is used as a weapon by powerful politicians against their enemies. This is the example implicitly referenced by Trump and his Republican allies when they insist that his prosecution has been corrupted by politics.

Take Pakistan, which rival politicians, often drawn from family dynasties, routinely pursue

using the country’s legal system against each other. As the dynasties win, lose and retake power, the courts

are used

to punish, weaken or sideline those who challenge them.

Time and time again, Pakistani politicians have been subjected to criminal charges after leaving office, including charges of corruption, treason and money laundering. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan is currently facing dozens of charges he says were prompted by the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Now, the United States is not Pakistan or anything like that. But Trump wants us to believe it is.

It is not useful for Manhattan Dist. attentive Alvin Bragg that the crimes charged in the Trump indictment count 34 crimes for falsifying business records

sounds like to the layman

accounting violations and minor violations of the law. In addition, they are prosecuted by a democratic prosecutor.

Thus, they give oxygen to the argument that a politically motivated prosecutor was looking for charges, no matter how obscure, technical or superficial. That it was a witch

–

hunt, as Trump likes to say. (He has pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts.)

But that turns out not to be true; in fact, there is nothing at all unusual about the case Bragg brought. His office regularly accuses people of false data

,

“bread and butter,” he said. Trump is the 30th defendant to be indicted on false data charges since Bragg took over a year ago, according to attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Norman Eisen.

Politically, it would undoubtedly have been better for the country if Trump had been indicted first for his larger, broader, more clearly outrageous misdemeanor of undermining the 2020 election, rather than for

counterfeit

silent cash payments to a porn actress.

It would have gotten more clearly to the heart of what is the worst and most dangerous thing about Trump. It might have been more convincing to skeptics. But that case may yet come. The Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney is still investigating Trump’s demand that local officials give him 11,780 votes. And Jack, the Justice Department’s special counsel

White Smith

continues to investigate Trump’s post-election lies and machinations, including his role in the January 6 election

Capitol

attack.

Of course, it is ironic that Trump insists that he is being persecuted by politically motivated enemies. The fact is, no one is more willing to politicize the justice system (and the country’s democratic institutions in general) than Trump himself. I firmly believe that he would turn us into Pakistan overnight if it brought him a hundred votes or a hundred dollars.

As president, he repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of judges who challenged him and court decisions he disagreed with.

He demanded the arrest of political opponents, including President Obama and the then Vice President

joe

pray He was particularly vocal in 2016 about his opponent, Hillary Clinton, who he says should go to jail for accessing her official email on a private server, which he insisted at campaign rallies was the biggest political scandal since Watergate.

All Americans should agree that it is wrong to use the justice system to punish your enemies. But at the same time, it is absolutely essential that we hold powerful people accountable for real crimes.

The ongoing investigations against Trump must, of course, be fair and unbiased. He must be presumed innocent and treated no better or worse than any other defendant.

But he also doesn’t deserve any special protection just because he was president once and hopes to be president again.

@Nick_Goldberg