Here’s an important thing to remember: This is probably just the beginning. The end is unforeseeable.
That’s because the unprecedented indictment of Donald Trump by a New York County grand jury on charges of paying “hush money” to a former porn star is almost certainly the first of several criminal charges he will face.
The former president faces potentially far more serious allegations, most stemming from his extra-legal efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat. They include pressuring Georgia officials to change the state’s outcome, resisting efforts to retrieve illegally possessed classified documents and inciting the insurrection to prevent Congress from ratifying electoral votes.
These cases — and any indictments and trials that may flow from them — are likely to dominate the political news for months, freezing the current situation in which Trump is the solid GOP front-runner and the November 2024 outlook remains very much in doubt.
That also means that the arguments — and the forecasts — that partisans and independent analysts have been making in recent days are unlikely to change much as Americans confront the spectacle of a former president brought before the bar of justice.