The rule of law applies to everyone, including Donald J. Trump.

At 5:05pm on Thursday May 30th, twelve jurors in Manhattan found a former president guilty of all 34 counts charged against him.

Last Tuesday, in the Manhattan business records case against Donald Trump, his lead attorney left the jurors with a parting thought, which drew Justice Juan Merchan’s sharp rebuke: “Think twice before ‘sending a man to prison.’”

Just two days later, around 4:30 pm, after only 10 hours of deliberation, the jury notified the judge of its unanimous verdict that Trump is guilty of all 34 criminal charges. Sentencing is scheduled for July 11, three days before the Republican nominating convention.

As the news was released, phones lit up across the globe with notifications that a former United States president and the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President in November had been convicted of 34 felonies. Everyone is asking: What does this mean for the country, the rule of law, and the election?

Reactions have been mixed, with some legal pundits adhering to the position that Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, regardless of the verdict, had overreached. I have never concurred with this view. Trump is the one who overreached, and overreached, and overreached. He is responsible for putting the country in this crisis. The judicial system is chock full of procedural rules, rules of evidence, constitutional guarantees for the rights of criminal defendants, appeals, legal standards, and a host of other measures to ensure good and fair decision-making. The fact that the other indictments are legally more robust, or “better” in some way (as some have argued), is beside the point. This is the only one that has gone to trial. The jury worked hard, and did their civic duty for the country. The system functioned in the way it’s designed to function.

Back in April of 2022, I wrote a column for Politico arguing that The Cost of Not Indicting Trump Now Is a Presidency Without Guardrails. The column was based on a thought experiment I did with my law students, in which we walked through all of the guardrails under the Constitution and asked what was left after Trump’s excesses and congressional enabling to ensure that future presidents act within the boundaries of the law and do not abuse their massive power. The only thing left, we decided, was an indictment.

Given Trump’s entrenched seat of power in America, this verdict is crucial to the survival of our system of laws because without consequences, the rules don’t matter.

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