Trained attorneys Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt either need some law school refresher courses, or they are deliberately misrepresenting the federal indictment of former President Donald Trump in ways so irresponsible they might qualify as incitement should violence follow. Missouri's two sitting senators — who both know better — are telling their constituents the indictment is the personal doing of President Biden, instead of the result of a legitimate legal process that is by definition separate from the White House.

No, Biden hasn't "indicted his top political opponent," as Schmitt tweeted. A federal grand jury did that, at the behest of a special counsel who operates independently from the Justice Department, which operates independently from Biden. Ditto regarding Hawley's claim that Biden believes he "can just jail his political opponents."

Hawley and Schmitt aren't alone. Prominent Republicans around the country are spinning misleading accounts of what's going on. With the echoes of Jan. 6, 2021, not that far in the past, it's plain reckless.

"It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy wrote in an especially unconscionable tweet. Again, a president can't "indict" anyone . And is the suggestion here that, by virtue of his candidacy, Trump can't be criminally charged for alleged violation of federal law, as would any other American? It sure sounds like it.

To be clear: These allegations aren't just a matter of mistakenly bringing some sensitive documents home from the office and forgetting about them, as Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence both were found to have done. That's not the best look for national leaders, but in both cases, they immediately cooperated with federal efforts to recoup the documents.

Contrast that with what Trump is accused of doing. The indictment alleges he didn't merely abscond with the hundreds of documents in question, but that he went to extraordinary lengths to prevent the government from getting them back, including activities that sound like textbook definitions of criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The indictment alleges Trump took classified documents related to U.S. defense strategies and nuclear programs — including documents that could have put U.S. intelligence agents at personal risk — and stored them in unsecured locations like bathrooms and ballrooms at his Mar-a-Lago resort. He's also accused of improperly sharing sensitive information with people with no security clearance, including visitors to his resort properties.

It might be tempting to dismiss even all of that as the blustery self-indulgence of a clinical narcissist trying to impress people. America has long known who Trump is.

Where it veers into areas that might reasonably be expected to land someone in a federal prison cell were his alleged efforts to resist returning the documents, even after they were subpoenaed, and his alleged obstruction of justice as the investigation unfolded. Among other actions, he allegedly pressed his lawyers and others to hide or destroy documents and to lie to investigators about it. If true, that's not just Trumpian braggadocio, it's felonious.

Federally indicting a former president for the first time in history isn't something to be done lightly. If special counsel Jack Smith ultimately presents a case that looks like legalistic nitpicking instead of substantive criminality, the Hawleys and Schmitts of the world may be politically rewarded for their knee-jerk sycophancy to Trump.

But they're making a dangerous bet. As Smith said Friday: "We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone." Most Americans understand that, even if Missouri's two sitting senators don't.

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