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Dropping Federal Charges Against Trump “A Loss for the Rule of Law”

Dec 13, 2024

1 min

James Sample

The CNN story, “Trump’s evasion of January 6 accountability will echo for next four years and generations to come,” features an interview with Professor of Constitutional Law James Sample.



The piece focuses on special counsel Jack Smith’s motions to drop federal charges against President-elect Donald Trump for mishandling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The dropping of the charges reinforces Trump’s belief that he will have almost unchecked authority when he is sworn in to office in January.


“For Donald Trump, his strategy of delay, delay, delay and then win the election to do away with the litigation, proves to be one of the ultimate success stories,” said Professor Sample. “It’s certainly a win in terms of avoiding accountability, which means it is a loss for the rule of law that it took so long to bring these cases to trial that they never in fact got to trial before the election.”

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James Sample

James Sample

Professor of Law

Professor Sample regularly comments on voting rights and constitutional issues in leading media outlets.

The Supreme Court Voting RightsVoting Rights PolicyConstitutional LawJudicial Elections
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