Editorial: GOP leaders are playing with fire by impugning Trump indictment

This image from the indictment against former President Trump shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.

June 13, 2023 3 AM PT

The arraignment on Tuesday of Donald J. Trump will be a sad day for the country, and not only because a federal grand jury has issued a 37-count indictment of the former president that William Barr, Trump’s former attorney general, called “very, very damning.” As shocking as the charges against Trump are, it’s equally dismaying that some prominent Republicans are rallying around Trump or impugning the investigation.

Trump was charged with willful retention of national defense information; conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record; concealing a document in a federal investigation; a scheme to conceal; and false statements and representations.

The grand jury also indicted a Trump aide, Waltine “Walt” Nauta, on the same charges except for willful retention of national defense information. According to the indictment, Trump had Nauta move 64 boxes out of a storage room at Mar-a-Lago so Trump could go through the contents, and later returned only 30 boxes to the storage room. The indictment alleges that this information wasn’t disclosed to a Trump lawyer.

The indictment, which includes a photograph of documents stored in a chandeliered bathroom, provides grist for comedians. But the charges against Trump are deadly serious. Even if the former president didn’t attempt to use sensitive national security documents to make money or for other nefarious purposes, the recklessness and defiance described in the indictment are shocking.

In announcing the indictment, Special Counsel Jack Smith rightly emphasized that “the defendants in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.” But given the seriousness of the allegations, it was vital that charges be filed despite Trump’s status as a candidate for the presidency in 2024. No one should be able to immunize himself or herself from prosecution simply by running for president.

Notwithstanding that reality, prominent Republicans have rushed to defend Trump or undermine the validity of the prosecution.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), who has demeaned himself by toadying to Trump in the past, tweeted this last week, before the indictment was even unsealed: “Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America. It is unconscionable for a president to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades. I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”

Where to begin? Biden didn’t indict Trump. A grand jury did, after an investigation by a special counsel appointed by Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland to ensure that the probe would be apolitical. President Biden, it turns out, did retain some classified documents after he left the vice presidency (and is also being investigated by a special counsel). But there is no evidence that Biden has engaged in the sort of resistance Trump is accused of. Finally, McCarthy’s threat to “hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable” is a reminder that the Republican majority he uneasily presides over has functioned for some time as an unofficial Trump defense team.

Barr — who was rightly criticized for acting in Trump’s interests as attorney general — offered a scathing refutation of the notion that Trump is a victim of a political prosecution. “It’s a very detailed indictment. And it’s very, very damning,” Barr told Fox News on Sunday. “And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous. Yes, he’s been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims, and I’ve been at his side defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He’s not a victim here. He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents.”

Whether Trump is criminally culpable will be decided by a jury. But Republicans who paint the former president as a victim — or engage in reckless rhetoric about possible retribution against prosecutors — are disserving the country. The riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, illustrates the danger when Trump’s most crazed supporters act on their delusions. Republican politicians will be playing with fire if they encourage similar conspiracy theories about this indictment.