The Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee began receiving delegates from across the United States on Monday to crown Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. The colorful balloons are already hanging from the ceiling, waiting for their moment. Before the convention even begins, however, Trump has received a last-minute gift. The judge in charge of the Mar-a-Lago papers case has quashed the former president’s indictment, shelved the case and closed it due to an alleged procedural defect in the appointment of the prosecutor.
Trump has thus been freed, at least temporarily, from a case in which he was accused of dozens of crimes of withholding secrets and obstructing justice for taking classified papers with him when he left the White House. Most of them were recovered during a search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
After the Supreme Court’s ruling on his immunity, which downgrades the cases of Washington and Georgia for electoral interference and which has also left in the air the conviction of New York for the Stormy Daniels case, This is another victory for Trump. The former president’s legal horizon is gradually clearing up, while his chances of returning to the White House after the presidential elections on November 5 are strengthening.
The decision comes just two days after he was assassinated and just as the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There he will formally become the party’s candidate for president and must announce who will accompany him on the ticket for vice president.
Trump suffered only a minor injury and his iconic image moments after the attack, calling for a fight with his fist raised, under the American flag, has reinforced the image of persecuted, martyr and rebel that he has cultivated among the Republican base. “A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen. They’re right and I didn’t die. Normally, you have to die to have an iconic photo,” he said on Sunday in an interview with the Republican National Convention. The New York Post.
At the same time, the former president has decided to moderate his speech and call for unity, in a clever move to broaden his electoral base. After the triumph of the Atlanta debate against Biden, with the perverse dynamic in which the Democratic Party has been installed – questioning its candidate, but without a clear replacement -, with its reaction to the attack and the favorable judicial decisions, Trump’s path to victory in the elections seems clear.
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“As we move forward in Unifying our Nation after the horrific events of Saturday, this dismissal of the Illegal Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, quickly followed by the dismissal of the ENTIRE Witch Hunt,” Trump wrote on his social network, Truth. The former president calls for all cases against him to be shelved. “The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME. Let’s come together to END all political manipulation of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!” Trump’s call for unity is, obviously, to unite around him.
The case file
Federal Judge Aileen M. Cannon, appointed by Trump himself, is the one who dismissed the Mar-a-Lago case. In a surprising 93-page ruling, she concludes that the appointment of the special prosecutor, Jack Smith, violated the Constitution because he had not been appointed by the president (the attorney general did) nor confirmed by the Senate.
“The Framers of the Constitution gave Congress a fundamental role in the appointment of principal and subordinate officials. That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or blurred elsewhere, whether in this case or another, whether in times of greatest national need or not,” their resolution says. The decision breaks with all previous precedents on the matter, which have upheld the validity of special prosecutor appointments by the Justice Department bypassing the Senate.
The judge’s ruling is subject to appeal, and the prosecutor is expected to appeal to a higher court. Higher courts have rejected previous decisions by the judge, who has almost always ruled in favor of the former president. Still, Cannon’s ruling will at the very least delay the case. Prosecutors had vigorously contested the claim that the appointment was flawed during hearings before the judge last month. They argued that even if the judge ruled in favor of Trump’s lawyers, the appropriate response would not be to dismiss the entire case.
The Mar-a-Lago classified papers case erupted in spectacular fashion with the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida by FBI agents on August 8, 2022. In June of the following year, he was formally charged with dozens of crimes. The former president was accused of handling hundreds of secret or classified documents that he took without permission to his private residence, which is also a hotel and social club, when he left the White House in January 2021. These papers, like those of any American president when he leaves office, belong by law to the National Archives. He is also accused of refusing to return them when the authorities repeatedly asked him to. This resistance led to the aforementioned search.
The judge had initially set a tentative date for the start of the trial last May, but then postponed it indefinitely. Now, with the new ruling, the case is closed and archived, Trump’s indictment is annulled and all hearings are cancelled. All of this, pending a possible appeal.
Meanwhile, the case drags on and Trump heads toward the White House. If he regains the presidency, he could get the indictment dropped even if higher courts rule that the judge’s decision to dismiss the case is unlawful.
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