With the Manhattan district attorney expected to indict former President Donald J. Trump soon (though there is no clear public indication of when), Republicans and conservative news outlets have already dug in against the move, while Democrats push back tepidly.

Republicans are by and large calling the case, which centers on a $130,000 hush money payment to a porn actress, a political attack with little legal merit. Many have leaped to a full-throated defense of Mr. Trump and condemnation of the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, without waiting to see the details of any indictment.

Democrats are treading more carefully: emphasizing that former presidents should be subject to the same laws and legal processes as everyone else, and condemning Mr. Trump’s efforts to agitate his supporters around what he says is his imminent arrest, but generally not going so far as to endorse the indictment itself.

Some analysts in the media, for their part, are raising questions about the wisdom of pursuing this case — or at least of pursuing it first. Mr. Trump is the subject of multiple criminal investigations, and some commentators, while making clear that they would like to see him indicted, are arguing that the Manhattan case is not the strongest one.

Indicting the expected indictment

‘An example of pursuing a political agenda’

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a likely candidate against Mr. Trump for the Republican presidential nomination whose initial silence drew criticism from...

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