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.”

Connect with:
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
Powered by

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from Hofstra University

1 min

Affordability is Key Issue for NYS Lawmakers

Lawrence Levy, associate vice president and executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies, talked to Newsday about New York State lawmakers returning to session with a mandate to address affordability, specifically childcare and rising utility and health care costs.

1 min

Is Maduro Ouster In Line with Trump’s “America First” Mantra?

In an article about the U.S.-led ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Dr. Meena Bose told Newsday that President Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions have undergone an “evolution” between his first and second terms. “When he first ran for president and started campaigning in 2015, he was very much opposed to U.S. intervention abroad,” said Dr. Bose. “His America First policy was very much against the Iraq War. He called for … economic U.S. primacy in the world, but to also kind of step back from direct engagement. And yet, we’ve seen multiple efforts from the first term and the second where the administration has been engaged in airstrikes and military action abroad.”

1 min

Analyzing the Media’s Decision to Air Partisan Address

The Associated Press interviewed Mark Lukasiewicz, dean of The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, for the article: “Trump gave an unusually partisan White House address. Should networks have given him the TV time?" Dean Lukasiewicz said, “It’s not that the Oval Office and the White House haven’t been used for political speeches before… But, as with a great deal of what Donald Trump does as president, this was outside the norm.”

View all posts