Maine Writer: Protecting the rule of law is essential to support our American democracy

Democracy depends on defending rule of law

Trump with lawyers in Manhattan court

Echo opinion letter published in the Sheboygan Press in Wisconsin:

Editor’s note: Former President Donald Trump entered a plea of not guilty in front of a federal judge June 13 after becoming the first former president to face charges in federal court.

No matter where we fall on the political spectrum, if we care about the rule of law and protecting our country’s national security, we should support the latest federal investigation and indictment of Donald Trump.

A group of everyday Americans, fulfilling their civic duty by serving on a grand jury, reviewed mountains of evidence — including testimony from dozens of witnesses, documents and more. They decided there was enough evidence that Trump committed a crime to bring charges against him. 37 charges, in fact.

Trump is charged with violating the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. According to the indictment, he knowingly took documents from the CIA, Pentagon and National Security Agency that contained everything from U.S. nuclear secrets to potential military vulnerabilities and our response plans for a possible foreign attack against us.

Donald Trump is the first former US President to be arrested on criminal charges.

Trump publicly and repeatedly confirmed he intentionally took classified documents containing highly classified materials with grave national security implications. He touted them around to unauthorized people at his private residence, and then he tried to prevent law enforcement from getting back what he stole. These crimes are too serious to be ignored.

Fame, fortune and title doesn’t make someone above the law — that includes Trump. When others have committed crimes of this nature, they were prosecuted. The same must happen here.

Our democracy depends on it.