Let us consider the federal government's second criminal indictment and forthcoming trial of Donald J. Trump, as well as his likely impending criminal indictment and subsequent trial in Fulton County, Georgia. Both these prosecutions are for conspiracies to subvert American democracy, disenfranchise voters and defraud the government. There are also related charges and counts regarding the corrupt obstruction of a congressional proceeding on Jan. 6, 2021, in the former case, and anticipated counts of obstructing justice according to Georgia's racketeering statutes in the latter case. Together, they make it perfectly clear why both of these trials must occur — and must be televised for the world to see.
As Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times writes in his latest column, even if Trump's Democratic opponents must ultimately "defeat him at the ballot box, it would have been untenable for the legal system to stay quiet in the face of an effort to put an end to the American experiment in republican self-government." It is also worth underscoring that Trump's "attempt to overthrow our institutions," in Bouie's phrase, could never have occurred without the distinctively American and undemocratic institution of the Electoral College.
