Special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday submitted a new filing in his DC election case against former President Donald Trump, arguing that he is not immune from prosecution in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. Smith originally charged Trump with four counts related to his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election. Trump had argued he was immune form prosecution due to presidential immunity. The Supreme Court, earlier this year, found that the president enjoys immunity for constitutional acts and presumptive immunity for official acts. Smith subsequently filed a revised indictment and has asked the court to determine that Trump’s alleged conduct does not fall within the scope of presidential immunity.
Read MoreTag: Judge Aileen Cannon
Judge Who Threw Out Trump’s Classified Docs Case Will Oversee Second Assassination Attempt Case
The federal judge who threw out former President Trump’s classified documents case will preside over the case involving the second assassination attempt on Trump in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Read MoreTrump Sues Justice Department for $100 Million in Damages over Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents Search
Former President Trump is seeking $100 million in damages from the U.S. Justice Department over its handling of the classified documents search at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Read MoreJudge Chutkan Faces Long Road to Get Trump Case Back on Track After Presidential Immunity Ruling
District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan will face challenges getting a Trump case that’s unlikely to proceed to trial before the election — or possibly ever — back on track.
After former President Donald Trump’s presidential immunity appeal brought on a months-long delay in the election interference case prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith, the case finally returned to Chutkan on Friday. Though she wasted no time scheduling a hearing for August 16 and asking both parties to submit a schedule for pretrial proceedings by August 9, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that efforts to advance the case will meet continued challenges.
Read MoreJulie Kelly Commentary: A Lifeline for Jack Smith in the J6 Case Against Donald Trump
Following humiliating losses at the Supreme Court and the shocking dismissal of the so-called classified documents case in Florida, Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared down for the count in his floundering attempt to ever get Donald Trump behind bars, let alone before Election Day.
Read MoreSeismic Shift for Trump in 2024 Race as Democrats’ Rhetoric, Presidential Debate, Lawfare Backfire
A seismic shift has occurred in the 2024 presidential race as the Democrats’ rhetoric, debate performance, and persistent lawfare against former President Donald Trump have appeared to backfire on them, with support for him continuing to increase, including after the assassination attempt.
Trump has been called a “threat to democracy” by Democrats, charged with numerous felony counts in federal and state cases, debated President Joe Biden with CNN moderators, and survived an assassination attempt, all of which have appeared to backfire on Democrats in the presidential race and increase the former president’s popularity as he runs to return to the White House.
Read MoreMar-a-Lago Case Dismissal Could Spell the End of Smith’s D.C. Prosecution and Anti-Trump Lawfare
After surviving an assassination attempt over the weekend, Trump began the week with good news in the form of Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing special counsel Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago case against him in a seismic ruling that could spell the end of his federal legal woes and build on his existing momentum in the national spotlight.
Smith had charged Trump in connection with his storage and retention of materials at his Mar-a-Lago estate, which the FBI raided in August of 2022. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in late 2022 to pursue the case and he brought an initial indictment in 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty though Smith in July of that year brought a superseding indictment with additional charges. The former president has long maintained he was innocent of any wrongdoing and that the case was part of a broader political witch hunt designed to derail his 2024 bid for the White House.
Read MoreJulie Kelly Commentary: Meltdown in Florida
“I’m going to ask that you just calm down. I understand this is sensitive and it’s difficult, but these questions are briefed and they’re before the Court.” So said Judge Aileen Cannon to David Harbach, one of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s lead prosecutors in the government’s espionage and obstruction case against former president Donald Trump, during a hearing on Wednesday. While temperatures spiked outside the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida throughout the day, so too did the climate inside Cannon’s courtroom.
Read MoreCommentary: Judge Cannon Puts Jack Smith on Trial
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon may have just indefinitely postponed Donald Trump’s espionage and obstruction trial but that doesn’t mean her federal courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida will lie dormant over the next few months.
In officially vacating the existing May 20 trial date—an impossibility considering the defendant will be in a Manhattan courtroom for the foreseeable future—Cannon declined to set another date, calling it “imprudent” at this stage of the process. She noted a “myriad” of unresolved matters in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 42-count indictment against the former president and his two co-defendants, Mar-a-Lago employees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Olivera, for willfully retaining national defense information and attempting to impede the government’s investigation.
Read MoreCommentary: Unredactions Reveal Early White House Involvement in Trump Documents Case
Top Biden administration officials worked with the National Archives to develop Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against Donald Trump involving the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified material, according to recently unsealed court documents in the case pending in southern Florida.
More than 300 pages of newly unredacted exhibits, containing emails and other correspondence related to the early stages of the hunt for presidential papers, challenge public statements by Joe Biden about what he knew and when he knew it regarding the case against his political rival.
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