Letter writer Jim Paladino of Tampa, Florida, recently suggested that if Donald Trump loses the election in November, he should negotiate a plea bargain such that he would not have to serve a prison sentence for any of his alleged crimes in exchange for conceding the 2020 election and his part in trying to subvert the outcome (“What a November victory for democracy would look like,” May 13). This is just wrong for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that if found guilty, Trump could be punished in other ways including being subjected to a humiliating public service job.
But what rankles most is the notion that a former president of the United States should be let off easy simply because he managed through cleverness and deceit to get elected. We need to stop treating presidents like royalty. I am of the firm conviction that a former president who betrays the public trust as Trump apparently has done must be held to the same standard of legal obligation as any other citizen.
Open the newspaper on almost any day of the week and there are accounts of people being sentenced to years and even decades of incarceration as punishment for far less serious crimes. If the American public is to have faith in a fair and equitable justice system, a Trump conviction must be followed by a proportionate punishment without regard to his formerly elevated status.
— Walter Levy, Pikesville
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