THE EVIDENCE has not been presented, tested or weighed, but already it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that Donald Trump, 76, believes himself to be above the law.
'I never thought anything like this could happen,' Mr Trump said on Tuesday night, after a 34-count indictment against him was unsealed in a New York court alleging, in effect, election campaign fraud.
Speaking at a podium beneath a chandelier in a large ballroom at his sprawling Florida estate, the former US president, who came to office promising to 'drain the swamp,' painted himself as a victim.
'The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation.'
Yet, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg and a New York grand jury disagree.
The unsealed indictment reveals that not only does Mr Trump go down in history as the first US president to be charged with a crime, but he has also become the defendant in what will be, for the moment, the single most high-profile trial of a white-collar crime in history.
That crime, as set out in the indictment and by Mr Bragg in a statement, is a complex, difficult-to-prove one involving the alleged falsifying of business records in a scheme designed to violate election laws and to disguise hush-money payments as legal expenses.
As we have been reminded recently in the Piarco International Airport litigation, America's criminal justice system has vast experience when it comes to handling white-collar crimes like fraud and embezzlement.
But when it comes to trying its highest-level leaders for such crimes, which include campaign finance and election offences, it lags behind the world.
The list of international politicians who have already faced criminal charges includes former French president Nicholas Sarkozy, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former South African president Jacob Zuma and our very own former prime minister Basdeo Panday, who was, in cases that were later overturned or discontinued by prosecutors, alleged to have made false paperwork filings and been involved in schemes.
Such prosecutions, as fraught and risky as they are, do not always end the political careers of those involved. Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva was re-elected to office last October after a bribery conviction that was later annulled.
The arraignment of Mr Trump has returned him, dramatically, to the spotlight and arguably burnished his status as the Republican party's frontrunner candidate for 2024.
With each new development - including possible further indictments - he grows stronger and more omnipresent, ominously eclipsing his rivals and maintaining his hold on his chorus of captive supporters.
No one is above the law. That is the message strongly sent by Mr Bragg in bringing this prosecution. But this complex case will possibly be the greatest stress test of the US justice system in generations.
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