Republicans are responding to Donald Trump’s fourth criminal indictment by effectively recycling the talking points they used in response to the former president’s first three indictments. The justice system has been “weaponized.” The White House has “politicized” law enforcement. The charges are an “abuse” and an “injustice.” We’ve become a “third-world country.” It’s all “election interference.” And so on.
Let’s make things plain. One of two things is true, either:
- There’s a vast conspiracy involving the White House, prosecutors, investigators, and grand jury members across multiple jurisdictions; or
- A scandal-plagued private citizen was indicted because of evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Much of the Republican Party insists that the former, not the latter, is a credible explanation for recent developments. It’s an open question as to whether GOP officials genuinely believe the former, but at a minimum, the party expects the public to take the line seriously.
To date, Republicans have struggled to substantiate this explanation with any meaningful evidence, but to hear prominent GOP voices tell it, the four indictments are themselves proof of systemic wrongdoing.
The core problem with this argument is that it’s predicated on a deeply strange assumption: To take the line from Trump’s partisan defenders seriously, one must accept as a given that the former president has earned the benefit of the doubt. As the argument goes, this necessarily raises suspicions, not about him, but about those who’d dare to accuse this virtuous and honorable man of wrongdoing. How else could anyone explain these four indictments?
But is anyone genuinely surprised by the fact that Trump has been charged with dozens of felonies?
Before launching a political career, Trump was investigated “in every decade of his adult life by federal and state agencies, by bankers and casino regulators, by legions of prosecutors and competitors.” Indeed, revisiting our earlier coverage, long before he rose to political prominence, the Republican first made headlines when he and his father faced a Justice Department investigation for discriminatory housing policies.
More recently, Trump was found to have run a fraudulent charity and a fraudulent “university.” While in the White House, Trump faced a criminal investigation, was impeached twice, and routinely found himself at the center of corruption allegations and scandals.








