Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been indicted by a grand jury and is set to be asked to surrender to the authorities. Trump becomes the first former chief executive in U.S. history to be charged. The indictment is said to be for hush-money payments made to a porn star, but details of the charges are not yet known. Questions have been raised about this particular prosecution, including doubts about the novel legal theory used, even among those who have no sympathy for Trump. However, the former president’s fixer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison for doing Trump's bidding, and a fundamental principle of justice is that if an agent is punished, then the principal should be as well.

Trump's arrest would mark the first time a former president is indicted in the country’s history, though in 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant was arrested by a policeman in Washington for speeding in his horse-drawn carriage. Questions have also been raised about whether the first indictment of a former president should be under a novel legal theory that could be rejected by a judge or jury. Regardless of whether the case is successful, a failed prosecution might strengthen Trump, while prosecutors aversion of their eyes because the suspect was a former president could send a message of impunity. In this case, justice must be the priority, honoring the aim of the punishment.