Just past 5:00 PM ET The New York Times broke the news that Donald Trump, the ex-president, had been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on felony charges.

It is a historic moment.

Legal experts are weighing in to help guide Americans through an event that has never before happened in this country.

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman says the fact that this is the first time in U.S. history a president is facing criminal charges is itself a problem.

“I think it would have not been a novel event,” Ackerman said on MSNBC, “if we had done this 49 years ago with Richard Nixon, and he had not been pardoned, this will not be a big event [that] it is today.”

READ MORE: New Poll Sends Trump Damning Message About 2024 if He’s Criminally Indicted

“Everybody should be held accountable,” Ackerman added, citing former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s earlier remarks. Cohen testified repeatedly before the Manhattan grand jury that indicted Trump late Thursday afternoon after a three-hour session.

Ackerman lamented that despite over 30 people being indicted during Watergate, “Richard Nixon was pardoned, he wasn’t held accountable.”

“I think this is very important,” Ackerman continued, “establishing a principle, a line in the sand, that even if you’re the President of the United States, and you commit a crime, you can’t stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and just shoot somebody.”

Ackerman was referring to Trump’s infamous comments during the 2016 election, when he bragged he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Attorney and civil rights activist Maya Wiley, also on MSNBC, said, “It’s important and sobering that we had somebody who had the highest office of this country who has now ben indicted for his behavior, his acts, in order to win that office, but also faces what are more shoes that will drop, I believe.”

“It is a sobering moment for this country, that we are witnessing this happened to somebody who was entrusted with such power who has now had a jury of his peers, because that is what a grand jury also is, say we believe he had to face the music.”

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Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law, called this a “moment where we would do well to seriously assess who we are as Americans and who we are not as Americans, because we re all so familiar with Donald Trump’s tactics.”

Fmr. federal prosecutor @JoyceWhiteVance joins “The Beat” on news of Donald Trump’s indictment – “A moment where we would do well to seriously assess who we are as Americans and who we are not as Americans.” pic.twitter.com/H4odpLre3C

— The Beat with Ari Melber 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) March 30, 2023

Watch the video above or at this link.

Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury investigating his role in a hush money payoff scheme that allegedly was designed to aid his election chances in 2016, according to multiple news reports.

“Mr. Trump will be the first former president to face criminal charges. The precise charges are not yet known, but the case is focused on a hush-money payment to a porn star during his 2016 campaign,” The New York Times was first to report. “The unprecedented case against Trump will have wide-ranging implications.”

CNN, citing sources, also reports Trump has been indicted.

Trump’s attorney, Susan Necheles, confirms to CBS News’ Graham Kates that the ex-president has been indicted.

This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change. This story will be updated.

Image via Shutterstock

In a blatant act of retribution, Missouri House Republicans this week voted to completely defund the entire state’s public libraries, after librarians filed a lawsuit with the ACLU over a new law that they say violates their First Amendment rights.

Should the bill pass Missouri’s Republican-majority Senate and be signed into law by Missouri’s Trump-endorsed Republican governor, all 399 of the state’s public libraries would receive $0 in state funding, a cut of $4.5 million.

“Often when we tell the public about the things that are getting voted on in here, they think when we tell them what happened just today, that’s got to be partisan rhetoric and hyperbole,” lamented Missouri Democratic state Rep. Peter Merideth (video below), who is also an attorney. “It’s not. These are the things actually passing.”

“They actually took out all state aid from public libraries explicitly because librarians are suing over their First Amendment rights over a book ban,” he continued, rubbing his temples in exasperation.

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“I feel like we’re starting to live in a dystopian future from like 1984 or Fahrenheit 411 or whatever – 451 – where we’re talking about book bans from the government, and then the government being mad at librarians as the threat to our kids? And defunding public libraries. That’s the real world here today in Republican-led Missouri.”

VICE News confirms the GOP gutted all library funding in the House bill.

The $0 budget “comes after Republican House Budget Chairman Cody Smith proposed a $4.5 million cut to public libraries’ state aid last week in the initial House Budget Committee hearing, where Smith cited a lawsuit filed against Missouri by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri (ACLU-MO) as the reason for the cut.”

The Associated Press adds that Rep. Smith “has said the state shouldn’t subsidize the lawsuit by giving public libraries money.”

Since last summer Missouri librarians have been faced with charges of up to one year in prison or $2000 in fines “for giving students access to books the state has deemed sexually explicit,” VICE explains. “The Missouri law defined explicit sexual material as images ‘showing human masturbation, deviate sexual intercourse,’ ‘sexual intercourse, direct physical stimulation of genitals, sadomasochistic abuse,’ or showing human genitals. The lawsuit claims that school districts have been pulling books from their shelves.”

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GOP Rep. Dirk Deaton says Republicans are doing it all for kids.

“It’s been said this is a book ban. This is not that,” Rep. Deaton said. “It is protecting innocent children.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

MO State Rep. Peter Merideth (D) on a just-passed GOP budget defunding libraries: “They actually took out all state aid for public libraries explicitly because librarians are suing over their First Amendment rights … We are starting to live in a dystopian future from 1984.” pic.twitter.com/fej8ywxbCf

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) March 30, 2023