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Florida Judge Dismisses US Justice Department’s Classified Documents Case Against Donald Trump
A Florida court has rejected the US Justice Department’s confidential materials lawsuit against Donald Trump, handing the former president a major victory only days after a gunman attempted to assassinate him.
Judge Aileen Cannon granted Donald Trump’s move to dismiss the federal prosecution, arguing that the Justice Department’s appointment of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith violates the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution.
Donald Trump pled not guilty to multiple charges involving his handling of secret materials, including the willful retention of national defense information.
Following Donald Trump’s departure from the White House in 2021, dozens of sensitive files were discovered in his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, including a shower and storage room.
“The Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” the judge wrote in her 93-page order.
The former president faced multiple felony charges for allegedly mishandling secret documents.
The 37-count indictment charged Donald Trump of hoarding files at his Florida home and lying to investigators. It was claimed that he then attempted to hinder the investigation into managing the documents.
He was indicted alongside aide Walt Nauta and former employee Carlos de Oliveira, who pleaded not guilty.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr. Smith in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations into the former president.
Judge Cannon stated that this decision only applies to this case, not a second one overseen by Mr Smith over alleged plans to invalidate the 2020 election.
The former president’s lawyers did not file a similar motion to dismiss the case.
The federal classified materials trial has been postponed indefinitely by a Florida judge chosen by Trump due to concerns over evidence.
Mr Smith’s two federal criminal charges have sparked debate among legal experts about their strengths and weaknesses.
On Monday, Judge Cannon stepped in and declared that such information was irrelevant.
She argued that the mere existence of special counsels, including how they are selected and funded, violates the US Constitution.
Judge Cannon’s decision contradicts the rulings of judges in other US courts who have dealt with these specially appointed prosecutors.
The theory is based on ideas proposed by conservative legal scholars, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the recent presidential immunity decision.
The Supreme Court ruled that former presidents, including Donald Trump, are immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” in that instance.
In her conclusion, Judge Cannon quoted Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion three times in the Supreme Court ruling, in which he questioned whether there was a legal basis for appointing special counsel.
On Monday, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the BBC that Judge Cannon’s decision was “stunning, to say the least”.
While Judge Cannon stated that her decision was restricted to this case, Mr Rahmani argued that it calls into question the appointment of special counsels in other situations.
This includes the case of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who was probed by a special counsel and convicted of weapons crimes last month.
However, one significant difference is that the special counsel in that case, David Weiss, is a US attorney for Delaware who, unlike Mr Smith, was chosen by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Mr Smith can appeal Monday’s verdict and request that a new judge be assigned.
Legal experts believe Judge Cannon’s judgment will be overturned, but the additional delay may benefit Donald Trump’s campaign.
“Her ruling has no chance of being sustained on appeal because it conflicts with decisions of the Supreme Court and other lower courts, but it will have the effect of preventing any more embarrassing revelations before the election,” said David Super, a Georgetown University Law Center professor.
The special counsel has yet to publicly respond to Judge Cannon’s decision.
Judge Cannon’s decision comes as Republicans assemble in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the Republican National Convention, where Donald Trump will accept the party’s presidential nomination.
The US election is on November 5th.
On Monday, Donald Trump stated on his social media site that dismissing the case “should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts”.
“Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!”
While many Republican politicians applauded the decision, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, called it “breathtakingly misguided”.
In May, Trump was convicted guilty of falsifying business records in a New York hush-money case. He is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
In addition, he has been accused of four criminal counts in the 2020 election case, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy against citizen rights.
In a second lawsuit, Trump and 18 other defendants are accused of criminally scheming to overturn his narrow defeat in Georgia during the 2020 election.
He’s denied any misconduct.
Source: BBC
News
Canadian Man Arrested for TikTok Video That Threatened Trudeau
A TikTok video that went live earlier this week has led to a Toronto man facing charges of threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Andrew Marshall, 61, is facing two counts of uttering threats.
On Friday afternoon, the Ontario Court of Justice granted him bail with a surety and restrictions after the RCMP charged him on Wednesday.
Following Monday’s upload to TikTok, CBC Toronto conducted its own independent investigation of the video. Marshall vehemently opposes what he perceives as restrictions on free expression in Canada in it.
“I get them taken down all the time— I make videos — or all my comments, that are just simple comments,” Marsh says in the TikTok. “It’s just getting ridiculous, Marshall said.”
According to the CBC more and more people are threatening politicians. The commissioner of the RCMP has hinted that further measures may be necessary to ensure their safety.
In the TikTok video, Marshall explains in great detail how he would brutally assassinate Trudeau and Freeland “if it was up to him.”
Marshall attacks multiple groups throughout the roughly 11-minute TikTok video, including the media, Muslims, migrants, and the police who defend the government.
Among Marshall’s bail terms are the following: he must not communicate with Trudeau or Freeland; he must not use the internet to make social media posts or comments; he must not own any weapons; and he must not apply for a firearms permit.
During the bail hearing, the prosecution provided all of the evidence that is often not published.
Nate Jackson, Marshall’s attorney, stressed his client’s liberties and privileges as a Canadian in an email message.
“He has the right to freedom of speech, the right to reasonable bail and the right to a fair trial,” he said. “Having secured his release from custody, we will continue to defend Mr. Marshall’s Charter rights as his case proceeds.”
Neither Freeland’s nor the prime minister’s office would comment on the allegations, according to the CBC.
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Canada’s Unemployment Rate Hits its Highest Point Since 2017
As the job market remains dismal, the national unemployment rate in Canada has risen to its highest point since 2017. This has led some analysts to question whether the Bank of Canada should be reducing interest rates more quickly.
In spite of a net gain of 22,000 jobs, Statistics Canada reported on Friday that the unemployment rate increased to 6.6% from 6.4% the previous month. The rise was due to an uptick in part-time employment and a fall in full-time employment.
Outside of the pandemic years, the national unemployment rate has reached its highest position since May 2017, according to StatCan.
Rapid population expansion in Canada has increased the overall labour pool, but the country’s unemployment rate has persisted in rising.
The summer job market was especially tough for students, according to StatCan. Not including the pandemic, the unemployment rate among students going back to school in the autumn was 16.7 percent, which is the highest level since 2012.
Two days after the Bank of Canada dropped interest rates for the third time in a row, reducing borrowing costs to alleviate economic pressure, the most recent reading of the Canadian job market follows suit.
According to TD Bank economist Leslie Preston, who wrote a note on Friday, the central bank is “giving the OK” to keep dropping rates due to the bad August jobs report. Preston predicts two more quarter-point decreases at the remaining decisions this year.
According to CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham, there are indications that the labour market is quickly contracting more than initially thought, since the unemployment rate is nearly two percentage points greater than the record low of 4.9% in June 2022.
“Due to this, we believe the Bank should be contemplating a quicker rate of reductions in order to bring interest rates to less restrictive levels,” he informed clients in a letter on Friday morning.
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US Job Growth Falls Short of Expectations: Economy Struggles Under High Interest Rates
Last month, job growth in the United States was weaker than predicted, prompting concerns that the world’s largest economy is beginning to struggle under the weight of increased interest rates.
The Labour Department said that employers added 142,000 jobs in August, which was less than the nearly 160,000 economists predicted. It also stated that job gains over the preceding two months were weaker than expected.
However, the jobless rate went down to 4.2%, down from 4.3% in July.
The report is one of the most important indicators of the US economy and arrives at a vital time, as voters consider presidential candidates for the November election and the US central bank contemplates its first interest rate decrease in four years.
Analysts said the latest statistics kept the Federal Reserve on pace for a rate drop at its meeting this month, but did little to answer worries about the trajectory of the US economy or how much of a cut it should make.
“There has rarely been such a make-or-break number; unfortunately, today’s jobs report does not completely resolve the recession debate,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
Soaring prices in 2022 caused the Federal Reserve to hike its key lending rate to 5.3%, a nearly 20-year high.
Faced with increased borrowing costs for homes, vehicles, and other debt, the economy has slowed, helping to alleviate pressures that were boosting inflation but exacerbating market concerns.
As inflation has fallen to 2.9% in July, the Fed is under pressure to decrease interest rates to prevent additional economic deceleration.
Although job increases in August fell short of expectations, they were greater than in July, when a slowdown aroused anxieties and triggered several days of stock market volatility.
Last month, construction and health-care firms hired the most, while manufacturing and retailers laid off employees.
Ms Shah stated that the data in Friday’s report was mixed, but provided enough concerning indicators that the Fed should make a larger cut.
“On balance, with inflation pressures subdued, there is no reason for the Fed not to err on the side of caution and frontload rate cuts,” she told reporters.
Others, however, felt the advances were just steady enough to warrant a 0.25 percentage point decrease, as markets had long projected – though this could signal more cuts than expected in the coming months.
Paul Ashworth, Capital Economics’ senior North America economist, predicted that the Fed’s decision will be “close run.”
“The labour market is clearly experiencing a marked slowdown,” he said, adding that the new statistics were “overall still consistent with an economy experiencing a soft landing rather than plummeting into recession”.
Concerns about the economy are a major issue in the US election.
According to polls, a majority of Americans feel the US is in a recession, despite healthy 2.5% growth last year.
Donald Trump has declared that the economy is headed for a “crash,” and his team instantly latched on the latest data to criticise Vice President Kamala Harris, publishing a press release titled “warning lights flash as Kamala’s economy continues to weaken.”
Democrats have defended their performance, claiming that the United States survived the pandemic and inflation better than many other countries.
They believe the slowdown is a sign that the economy is returning to a more sustainable rate of growth following the post-pandemic boom.
“Although hiring has slowed, the US job market continues to generate solid job gains and wage growth that is consistently beating inflation,” the White House Council of Economic Advisors stated in a blog.
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