Another week, another indictment. Americans can be forgiven for becoming numb to the still-astonishing fact that a former president and current presidential election frontrunner now faces four — count 'em, four — rafts of criminal charges from grand juries in New York, Florida, Washington and, now, Georgia.

Georgia's indictment, announced late Monday, has drawn the usual breathless outrage from Trump's defenders in Congress.

"Disgraceful," declared Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, noting that America has "never once indicted a former president" before.

True. But does it not occur to those who say this — as if it indicates unprecedented overreach by law enforcement — that it might instead indicate unprecedented criminality on Trump's part?

"The American people can decide whether they want him to be president or not" without grand juries weighing in, fumed South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. "This should be decided at the ballot box."

Translation: No one running for president should be subject to the laws of the land, even if they tried to illegally overthrow a previous election. This would not be a wise legal standard.

Trump's critics are often just as bad when it comes to drawing conclusions about charges that have yet to be adjudicated.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a joint statement saying the four indictments together portray "a pattern of criminal activity by the former president." Which sounds like they've already reached verdicts for the criminal juries.

The two leaders' statement goes on to implore Trump's supporters and critics to "allow the legal process to proceed without outside interference." It's advice they themselves should heed, along with other members of Congress in both parties.

As an editorial board unencumbered by the duties of congressional leadership, we're comfortable voicing our view: Trump's scheme to overthrow the 2020 election plainly betrayed his oath to defend the Constitution in ways that merited his impeachment and should have merited removal from office. But whether those schemes rose to the level of criminality is debatable. That's what the juries have to decide.

Which is how it should be. Merely being a former or aspiring president shouldn't shield anyone from facing criminal charges if there is evidence.

That said, we have concerns about the Georgia indictment. It's so sweeping that, as Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus noted in an analysis, it appears to attempt to criminalize even Trump's bogus post-election speech declaring victory. This is dangerous ground. And it largely repeats allegations already raised in the earlier federal indictment regarding Trump's attempts to overthrow the election.

Combined with the strong Florida indictment regarding Trump's mishandling of federal documents, and the more questionable New York indictment regarding Trump's pre-presidential hush money payments to a porn star, it all inevitably takes on the look of prosecutors piling on.

Against that legitimate concern are some words to keep in mind:

"I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state."

"So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes."

"Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break."

That's then-President Trump on Jan. 2, 2021, pressing Georgia officials to overturn Joe Biden's electoral victory in that state — to overturn democracy in order to keep himself in power.

These multiple indictments on various allegations, some seemingly stronger than others, shouldn't be allowed to so muddy the waters that Americans forget what the most serious of these charges are all about.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

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