Your Weekend Reading: The Uncharted Waters of Trump’s Prosecution

? Procedurally, the first former US president to face indictment is set to fly with his Secret Service detail to New York City early next week, be placed under arrest, fingerprinted and photographed. Donald Trump and the whole world will then finally learn the exact charges he faces. After that, everything (except perhaps a long, litigious road to trial) remains uncertain. Trump has previously predicted “death and destruction” should he be indicted, but so far most of the scattered demonstrators who have shown up at the Manhattan courthouse were cheering his bad news. It is, however, very much early days. And this is just the first and least serious of what could potentially be four criminal proceedings against Trump, stretching to Washington and Georgia, should he be charged in connection with his handling of top secret files, efforts to block Joe Biden from the White House, and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

The precedent for violence set on that fateful day is why New York officials have assigned police to set up camp around Manhattan’s Foley Square, where most of its courts are located. Indeed, Trump’s New York prosecution could breathe new life into his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and his contention that he has long been the victim of a Democratic-run “deep state.” Other GOP politicians, including his main rival, have rallied to his defense and called the grand jury indictment politically motivated, an allegation rejected by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.