For the first time in American history, a former president faces at least one criminal trial. Prosecutors in other countries have convicted their leaders—in France, Israel, South Korea and Italy, to name a few—but the idea of American exceptionalism makes us think that our presidents won’t be hauled off to prison. Of course, President Richard Nixon escaped indictment by a pardon, and his vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned with a plea of “no contest” to avoid a criminal trial; and there have been quite a few governors, senators, mayors and other elected officials who have been indicted or wound up behind bars. Because the rule of law is central to our democracy and thus nobody is above the law, including former presidents, we are now witnessing a once-and-perhaps-future leader of the free world in the dock.

There are several comprehensive articles on this trial, and a book edited by our friend Norman Eisen is about to be published. What we hope to accomplish in this Sidebar Series is to spotlight some of the more salient issues during the trial and help provide insight as to what is happening inside the courtroom. In that this upcoming Manhattan DA criminal trial’s central charge is that the former present broke several laws in order to improperly and illegally influence the 2016 presidential election, we—an election lawyer and former career prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s Office and now criminal defense lawyer–have teamed up to present a full picture. We hope this Sidebar Series is useful for readers to understand what is happening.