Donald Nieman, Binghamton University, State University of New York
By focusing on the facts, the public can avoid being distracted by baseless allegations about the Trump verdict that undermine institutions designed to ensure – not weaponize – justice.
Donald Trump leaves the Manhattan courtroom after being found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial on May 30, 2024.
Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images
The New York conviction of Trump is unlikely to end the legal saga, which could quickly be appealed and possibly rise to the level of the US Supreme Court.
Former President Donald Trump, accompanied by attorney Todd Blanche, speaks to the media outside Manhattan Criminal Court on May 21, 2024.
Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images
Closing arguments tell the jury why the evidence is believable or not, how the facts are linked or not and, most importantly, why their decision to either acquit or convict is moral and just.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump speaks to the media at the end of the day during his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments.
(Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)
Is Donald Trump the poster boy for the Dark Triad personality type? Or will his social bonds — if he has any — save him, and the world, from his worst instincts.
Michael Cohen leaves his home to attend his second day of testimony at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 14, 2024, in New York City.
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
Lying liars and closed eyes − both played roles in the most recent chapter of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York City.
Donald Trump, with his lawyers, talks to the press pool outside a Manhattan criminal courtroom during his hush-money trial on May 3, 2024.
Mark Peterson - Pool/Getty Images
Despite several efforts to delay the case involving hush money payments to a porn star, Donald Trump becomes the first former US president to go on trial on criminal charges on April 15, 2024.
Former president Donald Trump sits at the defence table with his legal team in a Manhattan court. He’s facing charges related to falsifying business records in a hush money investigation, the first U.S. president ever to be charged with a crime.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Accountants spurred Al Capone’s downfall and the Watergate scandal was revealed when reporters ‘followed the money.’ Will they also bring down Donald Trump?
Members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack listen during the fourth hearing on June 21, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Michael Cohen wants you to know that throwing your kid a ball doesn’t make you a Red Sox pitcher. So he told lies, he says, but that doesn’t make him a liar. A rhetoric scholar dissects his argument.
Michael Cohen, left, walks out of federal court, Nov. 29, 2018, in New York.
AP/Julie Jacobson
Michael Cohen will soon testify before Congress about his work for Donald Trump. But the hearing’s subject goes far beyond the committee’s jurisdiction, which is government operations and activities.
The New York district attorney dropped a financial fraud investigation of Ivanka Trump, left, and her brother, Donald Jr., right.
AP/Seth Wenig
The investigations into the financial dealings of Donald Trump and his associates join a growing body of evidence pointing to lax enforcement of certain high-level financial crime.
Barbados was ground zero for racism and slavery but due to the resilience of the islanders, it is a model country of democracy. Here a sugar cane harvest post card, circa 1927.
W. L. Johnson & Co. Ltd., Barbados. No. 15
U.S. President Trump’s former attorney revealed some ugly racist things his client has said. One of them - once again - speaks of “shit-hole” countries. We need to counter this false idea.
Michael Cohen’s guilty plea has raised questions about the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Chris Edelson, American University School of Public Affairs
Congress is supposed to be a check on presidential power, but party politics has muted Republican criticism of Trump. Restoring balance means making a radical change.
After the Manafort and Cohen news dropped, many wondered how Trump would respond. By the following morning, a messaging strategy seemed to coalesce.
Nick Lehr/The Conversation via Reuters and AP Photo
Trump’s surrogates have deployed tried and true rhetorical techniques to defend the president.
Trump’s long-time lawyer and political ‘fixer’ has pleaded guilty to breaking two campaign finance laws, allegedly at the direction of the president.
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Trump’s former personal lawyer broke two laws that control political spending, both passed after major election scandals. President Roosevelt survived his campaign’s misdeeds. Nixon did not.