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Donald Trump is the first former president in U.S. history who is charged with crime.

On March 30, Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg released a statement, stating that Trump broke state and federal election laws to hide negative business information such as the hush money to Stormy Daniels.

Trump should be the front running case of indicting and upholding justice against former presidents and politicians.

Historically, other presidents have been impeached, like former President Richard Nixon and former President Bill Clinton. But none have faced criminal charges, with Nixon being pardoned by his successor former President Gerald Ford.

This is not the first time Trump has faced legal issues, as he was impeached twice as president, and has faced ongoing court battles for his claims of voter fraud.

A reason for why it took until the 45th president, was that crimes either were not committed, or were usually lighter allegations, such as former president Ulysses S. Grant getting arrested for speeding while he was president.

However, as we have seen with Trump’s indictment, he has seriously and aggressively attacked election integrity. The U.S. is built on the founding principle of democracy, and power of the people, but the clear abuses of election funding and false claims of voter fraud are out right dangerous.

In Georgia there is another possible indictment, in which Georgia attorneys are looking into Trump asking the Secretary of State of Georgia for enough votes to win the election.

The Jan. 6 Committee also released its report stating Trump should be barred from office, so that could still lead to other charges for insisting violence and rioting at the capital.

The U.S. should no longer toe the line of holding the president of the U.S., above our own laws, and should seek justice to the full most ability of the law.

This should not be limited to Trump, or Republican presidents and politicians, but to all former presidents and politicians. The law should not be used to politically target opponents, but to maintain that everyone who commits a crime is judged fairly in a court of law.

The U.S. already has powers in place to impeach and kick a president out of office, so why should presidents have special legal protections outside of office.

South Korea is a key example of how a country up holds the law and indicts former leaders. Former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye were indicted and sentenced to 17 and 20-year jail sentences, respectively.

However, this takes us to another reason why countries and the U.S. in the past, are so hostile towards holding former leaders accountable. In South Korea, Former President Lee Myung-bak was pardoned to improve national unity.

Keeping the union together is a main reason why former presidents never face justice in the U.S. Trump holds a crowd of devout followers that go beyond just people who voted for him. On Jan. 6, we saw what these followers could do, and thus it is reasonable to not want to provoke that crowd.

Yet, I think that by not upholding the law evenly, we let people know that abusing the power of the oval office, is not only expected, but respected.

It is time to treat former presidents like we are treated in the eyes of the law, a citizen.