The recent indictment of Donald Trump represents the greatest potential risk to the criminal justice system and the Rule of Law in our lifetimes, and there is no easy way to avoid long-term damage. This is the proverbial “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” scenario.

Admittedly, my perspective – my bias – is shaped by my career as someone committed to our uniquely American approach to the criminal justice system, both as a top prosecutor and defense attorney in the civilian and military legal realms. I believe America must continue to pursue the ideals that the law applies to all equally, and that the criminal procedure we follow gives us the best shot at generating justice. The outcome never justifies the means. Us vs Trump risks blowing up those ideals.

The optics are awful. Repeating the undisputed facts out loud makes your face crinkle.

The prosecutor pursuing the Republican Trump was handpicked by the political appointee (U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland) of Trump’s former and current political rival for the most powerful office in the world, Democrat President Joe Biden, who appears to have unlawfully stored classified documents next to the 10W30 oil in his garage for years. The authority to prosecute Trump flows uninterrupted from Biden, who trails Trump in major polls.

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Those looking for more potential bias in prosecutorial decision-making likely remember Garland’s prior nomination to the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) by Biden’s then-boss (Barack Obama) was derailed in favor of allowing Trump to appoint someone else into the SCOTUS vacancy. Garland has a four-year gig, instead of a lifetime appointment because of Trump and the Republicans.

Meanwhile, across the courtroom is the indicted Trump, our former president, who admits to taking from the White House numerous Top Secret documents and storing them next to the soap-on-a-rope in his bathroom. He is alleged to have obscured them from the U.S. government of which he was no longer a part and thwarted a grand jury subpoena by misleading his own attorneys to whom he suggested lying about his possession of the documents. Trump appears to be on an audio recording admitting documents he showed to unauthorized folks remained “secret,” because he failed to declassify them while he was president. Trump denies he did anything wrong as steadfastly as he denies the results of the 2020 election.

If the contents of the 49-page indictment are true, Trump is likely to be convicted. And yet, those who recall the elaborate, multi-year, FBI-involved Russian collusion hoax, the politically motivated Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg prosecution, and the other Democrats-who-cried-wolf incidents over the past seven years remain skeptical of what appears to be yet another chapter in the Never-Ending Get Trump Story. Are we at a place now where only Republicans can hold Republicans accountable, or is that even a bridge too far? I am asking for two-time Iraq veteran and former Congressman Adam Kinzinger.

“What about Hillary?,” they demand, referencing the past secretary of state and failed political opponent of Trump, who stored classified emails on a personal server stored near the Head and Shoulders shampoo in a bathroom in Denver. Despite having evidence (cell phones and servers) destroyed, the FBI accused her of nothing. Trump’s FBI and Department of Justice also did nothing to pursue the case.

The perception of a double standard haunts the current case against Trump.

Our options are obvious, but challenging in modern America. Whether Trump committed the crimes alleged is not the biggest question of the day, despite the factual yoga Trump supporters engage in to try to explain how the audio-recorded admission does not really exist, or is the product of AI. The most significant questions are whether Trump should be prosecuted at all, and if he is not – what would be left of our notion of the Rule of Law? What will the party of law and order do to ever again be able to do to distinguish itself from the party of no personal responsibility?

Those who say this is “selective prosecution,” because Clinton, Biden and Pence and every other person ever have not faced similar investigations and prosecution, need to tell America what happens if Trump is not prosecuted. Will future former POTUSes be immune from all criminal conduct, or just criminal conduct involving classified documents? What will they say to 29-year Air Force veteran and retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert Birchum, who was sentenced earlier this month to three years imprisonment for unlawfully possessing classified documents at his home? “Sorry, Bob; you should have run for president.”

The criminal justice system has long battled the perception there are two systems, one for the rich, and one for us. This case has the potential to cement that belief and add to it the conclusion the law applies differently to the politically elite than it does to us.

We should have long ago employed a zero-tolerance policy for every former president (and presidential candidate) – Republican and Democrat – who possessed classified documents beyond their authority to do so. That is what we do with those of us who serve in uniform. It should have been the same for our commanders in chief. But having failed to do that, are we now and forever foreclosed from holding any of them accountable to the law?

Selective prosecution. Rule of Law. Politics-free justice. There is blame enough for everyone: Trump, Biden, Democrats, Republicans – a pox on all of your houses for putting us here.

We should acknowledge the mistakes of the past without being palsied from taking action now and in the future. Trump is a politician and personality. Adherence to the Rule of Law is a principle. To which will we commit ourselves for the America we want for our kids and their kids?

George Brauchler is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. He also is an?Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute and?president of the Advance Colorado Academy, which identifies, trains and connects conservative leaders in Colorado. He hosts The George Brauchler Show on 710KNUS Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him on Twitter: @GeorgeBrauchler.