EDITORIAL — And so it begins

Ahead of his resuming as president of the United States, the lawyers of president-elect Donald Trump are now moving to scrap his conviction in the hush money case.

They said "continuing with the case will interfere with the president-elect’s preparations for returning to the White House and impede his ability to run the country."

In case you forgot what this was about, this was the case where he was convicted for 34 counts of trying to influence the 2016 election by bribing to keep quiet a porn actress who said they had sex.

Well, yes, it’s true that the US presidency must not be burdened by other issues, but wouldn’t outright scrapping the conviction be a travesty of justice? Here is someone who has been convicted of a crime by a jury of his peers, and just because he became a government official again he immediately gets off the hook.

In the interest of justice --something the US supposedly prides itself on-- perhaps it would be better to hold off further development in the case until after his term, as opposed to essentially “forgetting” he was found guilty.

We cannot be blamed for thinking that Trump just ran to become US president to avoid all the possible jail time or penalties he will get for those 34 convictions. And also to avoid possible convictions in the other cases he is still facing.

And we are sure lawyers will also move to have these other cases dismissed, including his inciting the rebellion on January 6, 2021 and his keeping of classified documents. They might even try to overturn his conviction for defrauding a journalist.

Of course, with him as president, he might just work his magic and pardon all those who tried to overthrow the US government that fateful January 6.

If he does that then this would send the wrong message that it really isn’t wrong to try and usurp power from a legally-elected governing body, threaten to kill lawmakers, and attempt to overturn an election, as long as you are doing it for someone named Donald Trump.