No Person is Above the Law

Yesterday former president Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal violations of federal election law. It is the first conviction in U.S. history of a current or former president. There is nothing to celebrate about such a historic moment, but it serves to reinforce a fundamental principle of our country’s founding: that no one is privileged to ignore the law, and no one is above the law.

While this decision will be debated across this country’s bitterly divided political landscape, it is important to remember that both the prosecution and defense forcefully argued the case, and that 12 jurors reached their decision based on the facts and arguments that each side presented. As jurors do every day across our nation, the men and women of this jury reached their verdict only after careful and honest deliberation. To suggest otherwise is to fuel division in the service of partisan aims.

How voters will weigh this conviction in determining their vote for president in November remains to be seen.  But attacks on the integrity of the American jury system are as wholly misplaced and transparently self-serving as attacks on the integrity of our American electoral system.