Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Cohen in Court

This case will come down, as we always knew it would, to whether the jury believes convicted liar Michael Cohen. But that’s not as far-fetched of a proposition as it might sound. As far as prosecutors are concerned, we do that all the time. Criminals don’t surround themselves with altar boys. Donald Trump is no exception.

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The Week Ahead

Much of our attention this week is going to be devoted to Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, where the government will likely finish its case by the end of this week or early in the following one. There are no proceedings Wednesday, or Friday (when Trump told the Judge he would attend his son Barron’s graduation). The case certainly merits our attenti…

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Mar-a-No-Go

There was little doubt before last week that federal Judge Aileen Cannon was determined to delay Trump’s criminal case in front of her—the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case—until after the election. Now, there is none. It’s been apparent for months that the May 20 trial date in this case wasn’t going to be the actual start of trial, as the Judge let c…

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Five Questions with Jill Wine-Banks, Former Watergate Prosecutor

Jill Wine-Banks is a national treasure. The only woman lawyer on the Watergate prosecution team, she has vast experience as an attorney. Not only was she a federal prosecutor, she was the first woman to serve as General Counsel of the Army. Jill was also a partner with the law firm of Jenner and Block LLP and has worked in business as a Director and Vice President at Motorola and Vice President at Maytag. Jill is also

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Getting to Michael Cohen

Stormy Daniels owned cross-examination today. Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, came at her with guns blazing. But Daniels, who testified that she is a stronger person today than she was when she had sex with Trump, answered questions directly and forthrightly. Whether the jury likes her or not is beside the point (although they may well at this point). D…

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Wednesday with Chickens

It’s an early night for me tonight. I have a disgustingly early flight to Detroit for the Sisters-in-Law live podcast show tomorrow night. I’ve tucked in the chickens (we’re expecting storms) and will be heading off to bed as soon as TV is over tonight.

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"What Could Go Wrong?"

In July of 2006, Stormy Daniels met Donald Trump at a Lake Tahoe celebrity golf tournament. Today in court, she testified that initially, she didn’t want to have dinner with him when she received an invite. But she was persuaded by her publicist, who said, “It’ll make a great story. He’s a business guy. What could possibly go wrong?”

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Courting Disaster

Over the weekend, Donald Trump called for the arrest of Jack Smith, the Special Counsel who has indicted him in both the election interference case in Washington, D.C., and the classified documents case in the Southern District of Florida. Trump posted, “ARREST DERANGED JACK SMITH. HE IS A CRIMINAL,” on Truth Social late Friday. Then, at a closed-door r…

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The Week Ahead

As of tonight’s post, there are over 275,000 subscribers to Civil Discourse, and on average, each newsletter gets around 300,000 views. That suggests that you are sharing the newsletter with friends in addition to reading it yourselves, which makes me feel like we’re a success together. It’s clear we have work to do to keep the Republic and then to rebu…

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How It’s Done

For whatever reason, it has always been difficult for people to call out Trump’s lies. In the early days of his presidency, it was, perhaps, understandable because we were so unprepared for an American leader who lied repeatedly, shamelessly, and obviously. Americans were used to respecting the office, if not the person holding it at the moment; it was …

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