Another courtroom, more Trump charges

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Former President Donald Trump is facing his fourth indictment in five months. And just like the others, this one was replete with Trump's denunciation of the prosecutor and the process, complaints quickly parroted by congressional and conservative media enablers.

Indeed, there's a dreary familiarity to it all by now. But that doesn't mean Americans shouldn't be shocked — let alone outraged — by the charges against Trump and 18 political and legal allies unveiled Monday in a Georgia courtroom.

Minnesotans might be prompted to wonder about the security of this state's election systems — and the people who run them. But first, they should digest Monday's news.

"The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia's legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result," Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at a post-indictment news conference.

Her use of the word "racketeering" isn't just rhetorical. The 19 defendants were charged under Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (or RICO Act), often used to fight organized crime. Only this time what the alleged perpetrators were targeting wasn't money or merchandise, but something more valuable — priceless, really: America's democracy.

As with the other three Trump indictments — as well as the heightened legal jeopardy for Hunter Biden after the Justice Department named a special counsel in his case last Friday — the legal process must be allowed to play out. And as always in this nation, defendants are presumed innocent unless proven otherwise.

But that doesn't mean states can't take steps to strengthen election defenses in order to inspire or increase confidence in their election systems, which would make an attempt to politically manipulate the vote less likely. Just as important, girding against perceptions of fraud does not have to happen at the expense of voter turnout. In fact, confidence in the veracity of voting results can be a force multiplier. Take Minnesota, for example.

This state had election-security measures in place before, on and after Election Day, and looked to strengthen them in this year's legislative session with laws that took effect this year and others that will impact 2024 and 2025, including several to make voting more accessible. In a Minnesota Poll last year, citizens seemed to agree on the integrity of our elections, with an overwhelming 83% expressing a high or moderate degree of confidence that votes would be counted accurately in last year's midterm elections.

Maintaining that degree of confidence, and thus making the state immune to the allegations Trump leveled against the results in Georgia and elsewhere, is the job of every Minnesotan. But at the top of the list is Secretary of State Steve Simon, who told an editorial writer Tuesday that it's critical to be transparent and counter disinformation with facts. "Disinformation — not disagreement, which is as American as apple pie," he said.

But ultimately it comes down to leadership. Fortunately for the country — and those elsewhere who aspire to democratic rule, however temporarily tainted in America — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger resisted Trump's strong, and wrong, appeal to "find, uh, 11,780 votes," which would have flipped Georgia and then likely the country to Trump.

Raffensperger, said Simon, "is my colleague and we're from different political parties. We disagree on a fair number of issues, as you might expect, but he stood up and stood firm against what can only be described as bullying."

Simon added: "I think it's important to set an example for others to follow, which is to obey the law and not give into political pressure. And I think all secretaries of state that I know and served with from both political parties are generally cut from that same cloth."

Including Simon himself.

Soon, jurors in multiple courts will weigh the grave charges against Trump, who as president especially should be guided by the same ethos as Raffensperger. Those of us in the court of public opinion should be, too.