Daily Herald opinion: The Trump indictment: Our justice system can handle this stress test; we must let it

This editorial is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

In unprecedented times, unprecedented demands can be placed on a people who would be so arrogant as to believe they can govern themselves through a representative democracy. With the reported indictment of former President Donald Trump, we Americans have arrived at such a time. Now, we are faced with the challenge of proving we are true to what we tell the world we stand for.

First, that people accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt before a jury of 12 peers. The former president has been the target of speculation and accusations about criminal behavior since before he took the helm of the nation. Now, presumably he will have his day in court, in front of a legal system with rules and requirements that go beyond rumor, innuendo and personal or political animus.

It is unfortunate — deeply saddening, in fact — that it has come to this, and particularly unsettling that of all the investigations of Trump's behavior, the one that has reached this point is a tawdry issue involving claims of sex and hush money. But crimes are clearly defined, and if Trump committed one here, we are confronted with a second critical test of our notions about justice — that no one, not even a former president of the United States, is above the law.

It is troubling that these legal proceedings come at such a politically and socially disheveled time for our country. It is lost on no one that the prosecutor bringing the charges against the Republican ex-president is a Democrat, but it should also be lost on no one that, whether the origins of the case are political or not, the system that proceeds is designed and intended to dismiss politics.

It is a system, sadly, that has been tested aplenty over the course of American history, if not yet to this extent. Four Illinois governors have been charged and convicted of crimes, many of them at least as open to interpretation or controversy as the charges facing Trump. By some counts, at least 85 members of Congress have been held to account for crimes. Then-Vice President Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to accusations of crime and was removed from office for actions that preceded his two vice presidencies. Powerful Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski was sentenced to 17 months in prison on a plea deal involving charges of mail fraud he insisted should not have been considered crimes.

Despite these and scores of similar cases across the country, our democracy has held firm. Our institutions, particularly our values regarding criminal justice have withstood the temptations of partisan rancor. The system may have endured criticism, but it has not been considered “weaponized” and should not be so now.

The system may be imperfect, but it is strong and well-built. It has worked effectively and upheld the values of our country for more than two centuries. It perhaps has not faced quite the same stress test it faces today, but it will be up to the challenge if we, the people who have maintained, nurtured and trusted it through so many previous claims and controversies, will stick to the faith we profess in our ability to govern ourselves.

For all the politics, all the insults, all the accusations, the rumors, the conjectures and complaints and partisanship that may play themselves out in our private and public punditry, let us never lose sight of the fact that we have a system that rises above all that. And let us let that system work.