“Donald Trump and his associates were allegedly trying to take away the voices of voters—their freedom to decide elections for themselves,” they write in a guest essay. By bringing charges, states are “sending a message”
Georgia appears ready to unveil criminal charges against Donald Trump, for attempting to reverse his loss in that state in the presidential election of 2020. These charges will land not long after Jack Smith, the Justice Department’s special counsel, filed his historic four-count indictment of the former president for trying to overthrow the entire national election and remain in power.
This is because state and local prosecutors have different goals. They swear oaths to uphold the laws of their own jurisdictions, on behalf of the people. That means defending people’s right to have their votes counted, and defending the results of our free and fair elections. And it’s why state and local prosecutors are justified in bringing charges for the pieces of the 2020 plot relevant to their own states.
It appears not, as a number of states do not seem to be moving forward. But it is fair for different states to make different decisions—and if several decide to address the harm within their borders, that is fine, too. In the decentralised American system, elections are guided by state and local laws. State and local leaders, including attorneys-general and district attorneys, have a responsibility to defend those laws and the voters they represent.
Mr Trump disrupted the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history. We must make sure no future president tries anything like that ever again. Our guiding principles must be no tolerance of attacks on our elections, and accountability at every level. No dimension of this assault on democracy should be left unexamined.
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