Pace Now

"To me, it's straightforward criminal law," said Bennett Gershman, a Pace University law professor and former prosecutor. "You've got the act, you've got the consequences and you've got the culpable mental state. I don't know how he could say he didn't intend to do it."

"They are going to try to throw as much smoke and mirrors and red herrings into the case as they can. With Trump, every single microscopic issue is going to be litigated," said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University.

For students in Sarah Blackwood’s How to Read Moby-Dick class at Pace University, learning about Herman Melville’s work isn’t confined to lectures, essays or classroom discussions. Blackwood’s syllabus includes a tour of Lower Manhattan locations featured in the author’s novels and stories: the Wall Street law offices where Bartleby, the titular scrivener of one of Melville’s best-known stories, worked, as well as the streets that Ishmael walked in the opening chapter of Moby-Dick.

"They're doomed, I think. Who would want to do business with this organization or with Trump?" said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University and a former prosecutor in the New York State Anti-Corruption Office. Trump Organization companies rely on financing to build resorts, hotels, golf clubs and residences. In Gershman's view, the Trump Organization's criminal conviction last year made the company "toxic" for many potential lenders and business partners. While the indictment of its former CEO may not directly add to those legal woes, it may further tarnish the company's reputation.

Dr. Darrin Porcher, a retired NYPD lieutenant and professor of criminal justice at Pace University, breaks down the logistics behind Trump's court appearance and travel throughout New York City.