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The United States will cross a historic threshold on Monday when for the first time a former president is on criminal trial in a case laced with fateful significance because Donald Trump could be back in the Oval Office next year.
Read More: Trump hush money case makes history with first criminal trial of a former president
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trumps-history-making-hush-money-trial-starts-monday-109228826
When the presumptive GOP nominee walks into court for the start of jury selection, he and the country will enter a new state of reality as legal and political worlds collide in a trial almost guaranteed to deepen Americans’ bitter ideological estrangement.
The trial, related to hush money payments to an adult film actress before the 2016 election, will mark yet another extraordinary twist in the story of Trump, whose incessant testing of the limits of presidential decorum and the law has caused nearly nine years of political tumult and may still have years left to run.
It raises the possibility that, depending on the jury’s verdict, the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election could be a convicted felon. And given the case’s subject matter — details about a payment to a woman who alleged that she had a sexual relationship with Trump, which he denies — it could reflect poorly on Trump’s character and ethics as voters weigh their decisions in November.
Hush money payments are not illegal. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to keep unflattering information that could have hurt his campaign from the voters in an alleged early example of election interference. The fact that this case stems from alleged personal conduct means that it could have a lesser political impact than Trump’s three other looming trials, which are rooted in greater constitutional and legal concerns pertinent to the powers of the presidency.
But the success of the ex-president’s legal delaying tactics in the other cases — related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and hoarding of classified documents — means the hush money trial may be the only one to take place before the election. And Trump — though he is entitled to the presumption of innocence and the airing of evidence like any other defendant — is showing signs of increasing agitation at the prospect of the trial and the indignity it represents for someone who used to be the most powerful man in the world.
Still, if he had to choose only one of the quartet of cases to reach a conclusion before the election, it would be this one.
The United States, unlike democracies that have been historically less stable, is not a nation accustomed to seeing its former heads of state on trial. While the circumstances of this case and Trump’s broader legal troubles are unique, this new precedent does open the possibility that it will be less of a leap for future presidents to be pursued by legal investigations. Indeed, Trump has already warned that if he wins in November, he will dedicate his second presidency to “retribution” and will use the powers of the presidency to go after his foes, including the Biden family.
None of this is remotely normal. But it is all part of the extreme political, legal and constitutional challenges that Trump constantly poses to US institutions and that he is signaling would intensify if he wins a second term. The incessant cacophony stirred by his volcanic personality is by design — it makes it hard for Americans to process each distinct Rubicon that is crossed.
Source: CNN
