USAnalysis

Trump’s legal problems fade away as campaign gets fresh boost

Judge’s ruling on classified documents charges come days after would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear

Members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organisation rally before a protest march on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Monday. Photograph: Jon Cherry/The New York Times
Members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organisation rally before a protest march on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Monday. Photograph: Jon Cherry/The New York Times
Gregory Korte
Mon Jul 15 2024 - 19:40

For Donald Trump, the timing couldn’t have been better.

US district judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal on Monday of the indictment charging the former president with mishandling classified information gives Donald Trump yet another boost in what has already become the most extraordinary week in his bid to return to the White House.

Coming two days after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear, and three days before he will accept the Republican presidential nomination, the ruling gives Trump fodder to rebut one of the most damaging accusations against him: that his recklessness in handling the nation’s most sensitive secrets made him unfit to serve as president again.

Trump marveled at his good fortune at still being alive during a Sunday interview on his way to Milwaukee for his party’s nominating convention, recalling how he turned his head at the “exact right angle” to avoid the would-be assassin’s bullet during his rally the day before.

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“Pretty amazing. I’m really not supposed to be here,” he told the Washington Examiner.

Trump’s near-misses at this particular point in the news cycle come during a politically perilous period for Joe Biden, whose poor debate performance last month raised questions about his ability to serve another four years and prompted calls from within his own party to step aside. The assassination attempt forced Biden to pivot away from a new effort to regain his footing by aggressively confronting Trump.

Trump has used the attacks against him — both legal and physical — to galvanise Republicans behind him and raise millions from small-dollar donors. While Trump has not revealed any fundraising numbers from the last two days, he came into July with a $285 million war chest, compared with $240 million for Biden.

The events appeared to have further emboldened Trump. The former president on Monday drew a connection between the attempt on his life and the criminal cases against him, making clear the national unity he is calling for should only come on his terms.

“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social.

The former president called the effort to prosecute him over his involvement in the January 6th Capitol attack a “hoax” and claimed he never met E Jean Carroll, the woman a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting. “Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!” Trump added.

Cannon’s decision brought a sudden end to a criminal case that had been seen as the most perilous of all of the prosecutions of the former president. Trump was accused of taking classified documents from the White House to his Florida home, sharing their contents with unauthorised individuals and then trying to block the federal government from retrieving them.

The case burst into public view two years ago, when federal agents raided his residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and photographed documents strewn across several rooms. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and claimed he had the right to keep the documents.

The judge’s 93-page decision did not have anything to do with that evidence. Rather, Cannon — who Trump appointed to the federal bench in 2020 — said that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment as a prosecutor was unconstitutional because he was not confirmed by the Senate.

Notwithstanding his felony conviction in the New York hush-money case, the criminal prosecutions against Trump have largely stalled. Trump received another break when the sentencing in Manhattan was delayed until at least September after the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.

That decision could hamper efforts to prosecute Trump in two other cases — already delayed until after the November election — accusing him of being part of a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. - Bloomberg