Campus responds to Trump’s indictment.
Every American, regardless of their political position, should be horrified and outraged by the historic indictment of former President Donald Trump, according to Associate Professor of Economics Charles Steele.
“The persecution of President Trump by the legal system is designed to terrify anyone who considers seriously reforming it,” Steele said. “America will not recover if this stands.”
On Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on March 30, making him the first former U.S. president in history to face criminal charges.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg released a statement of facts alongside the indictment.
“The defendant Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” the statement reads.
Professor of Politics Thomas West said the Trump indictment undermines traditional American values.
“The Trump indictment is an outrage,” West said. “The NYC prosecutor is part of the radical leftist legal network that aims to destroy the older America and its representatives, such as Trump himself.”
According to Steele, Trump is being treated differently than other politicians and government officials, including Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and James Comey, who are all guilty of wrongdoing but have never faced criminal charges.
“It is the use of the legal system to destroy perfectly legitimate political opposition,” Steele said. “There is one set of rules for people who the administrative state supports and another completely different set for its opponents.”
Associate Professor of Politics Joseph Postell said Bragg has personal reasons to bring such a high-profile case, given his position as an elected official.
“When even Slate magazine and Vox claim that there’s a very flimsy legal case for the indictment, I think that’s a clear sign that the New York defense attorney was not doing this for purely legal reasons,” Postell said.
Many people have accepted the indictment because of their personal dislike of Trump, Steele said. According to him, state attorney generals should be charging and arresting Biden cabinet officials.
“It should be personally dangerous for Washington political elites to flout our Constitutional system,” Steele said. “If it is not, they’ll dismantle it entirely and America will enter a period of unchecked tyranny.”
According to Postell, the indictment may help Trump in the Republican primary.
“It contributes to the view of many Republican voters that Trump is taking on the system and that the system is trying to prevent him from winning re-election to the presidency,” Postell said. “For these Republicans, those considerations are precisely why they want him to be the party’s nominee.”
Nathan Schlueter, professor of philosophy and religion and director of Hillsdale’s pre-law program, said it’s clear the indictment is politically motivated, but unclear whether it’s a strategic effort to help Trump win the Republican nomination.
“Whatever the motivation, this is a win for Trump, who likes to keep his personality at the center of attention, and a loss for those Republicans who want the disastrous policies of the Biden administration to be the center of attention,” Schlueter said. “More worrisome for all Americans, this indictment reflects a dangerous political weaponization of the legal system which puts us on the corrupt path of the Roman Empire and contemporary Latin America.”
Trump’s next in-person hearing is set for Dec. 4.
