The 12 Days of Trump Court: A year of appearances, from unprecedented to almost routine

'Tis the season to look back on a truly unprecedented year in America's courts, when the sight of a former president sitting before a judge went from unheard of to almost commonplace, and his ongoing campaign fused courtroom appearances into stump stops.

As Donald Trump's lawyers pointed out in a filing Saturday night, "During the 234 years from 1789 to 2023, no current or former President had ever been criminally prosecuted." That streak ended on March 30, when a New York grand jury indicted Trump, making him the first former president to be charged with crimes. 

He was soon indicted in three more cases, appearing for arraignments in two (and waiving his appearance once). Then Trump attended nine days of a civil fraud trial, testifying twice. His first couple of days in court drew crowds of demonstrators, both supporting and opposing the former president. Courthouses were nearly shut down as regular business gave way to prioritizing one heavily guarded defendant.