Trump documents case dismissed by federal judge
Trump documents case dismissed by federal judge
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon granted Trump's bid to dismiss the indictment.
Pinning this one and removing the others as it was first and has the most engagement.
If you're trying to keep track of where we're at in the Trump prosecutions:
Updated 07/15/2024
New York
34 state felonies
Stormy Daniels Payoff
Investigation
Indictment
Arrest
Trial
Conviction <- You Are Here Guilty, all 34 counts.
Sentencing - Originally scheduled for July 11, 2024, now delayed until September 18th following the Supreme Court's ruling on Presidential immunity.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/politics/trump-sentencing-date-delay-proposal/index.htmlWashington, D.C.
4 federal felonies
January 6th Election Interference
Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - The trial, originally scheduled for March 4th, had been placed on hold pending the Supreme Court ruling on Presidential Immunity.
The Supreme Court ruled that the President does enjoy limited immunity for "official acts", it now returns to lower court to determine what, if any, of his acts leading up to 1/6 were "official".
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/01/politics/supreme-court-donald-trump-immunity/index.html
Conviction
SentencingGeorgia
10 state felonies
Election Interference
As of 3/13/24 - Judge McAfee cleared 6 charges, 3 against Trump, saying they were too generic to be enforced.
As of 3/15/24 - The case may proceed, but either Fulton County DA, Fani Willis and her office or Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade must remove themselves due to the appearance of impropriety.
Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
All 19 defendants have surrendered.
Trial - October 4th, 2024 hearing has been set to determine if Fani Willis can remain on the case.
Three defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, and bail bondsman Scott Hall, have all pled guilty and have agreed to testify in other cases.
Conviction
SentencingFlorida
40 federal felonies
Top Secret Documents charges
Investigation
Indictment
Original indictment was for 37 felonies. 3 new felonies were added on July 27, 2023.
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - The trial had been set to begin May 20, 2024, but was subsequently delayed indefinitely by the judge, and has now been dismissed outright under the claims that the prosecutor was not Constitutionally appointed.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/judge-tosses-trump-documents-case-ruling-prosecutor-unlawfully-appointed-2024-07-15/
The expectation is that this will be appealed and the Judge removed from the case.
Conviction
SentencingOther grand juries, such as for the documents at Bedminster, or the Arizona fake electors, have not been announced.
The E. Jean Carroll trial for sexual assault and defamation where Trump was found liable and ordered to pay $5 million before immediately defaming her again resulting in a demand for $10 million is not listed as it's a civil case and not a crimimal one. He was found liable in that case for $83.3 million.
There had been multiple cases in multiple states to remove Trump from the ballot, citing ineligibility under the 14th amendment.
The Supreme Court ruled on March 4th that states do not have the ability to determine eligibility in Federal elections.
You are a patriot
I spent 3 years and half a million dollars getting a law degree...and it make me feel good to know that everything I learned there doesn't actually fucking matter. All I needed to learn was that if you are appointed by an authoritarian Cheeto, the law is what you make it.
"The main benefit of controlling a modern bureaucratic state is not the power to persecute the innocent. It is the power to protect the guilty." - David Frum
You pretty much learn this, but then you find your way into camp A that attempts to hold up this system, or Camp B where you attempt to use this system to destroy itself....Camp B is struggling right now.
I have a friend who had a case before Cannon and told me that she was both one of the stupidest and the meanest judges she's ever dealt with, which is saying something since she practices primarily in Florida. As a representative of the caliber of judges the Federalist Society has to offer, Cannon is pretty damning... and if we get four more years of Trump, the federal bench is going to be stacked with jurists even worse than her.
2016-2020 - how far can I go placing terrible judges that'll do my bidding
2024 - damnit, I could have gone even further the first time.
We are dangerously close to an emperor has no clothes moment in regards to the rule of law. When people digest that the law is whatever it needs to be to suit the needs of the moment, they'll operate as if there is no law and they'll be right. I fear we are already past the point of no return.
All for Donald fucking Trump.
When the supreme law of the law, the Constitution, is nullified the Great American Experiment ceases to exist - we are there. The war has already begun.
I was wondering how much this Trump fuckery is going to effect legal precedent since precedent seems to matter quite a lot in the legal system. Or do you think most judges are going to straight up just say Trump gets more legal rights so precedent set by him doesn't matter?
I suggest listening to the podcast Strict Scrutiny. They do a fantastic job of breaking down the way the current Supreme Court has just thrown out nearly every well established precedent. And it pretty much is based upon their own individual ideology and not based on any logical interpretation of the constitution.
Precedent is dead thanks to chevron overturned. Supreme court took a massive shit on it
So much for the legitimacy of our courts and laws
It's almost like Clarence Thomas is acting in the best interests of a foreign power trying to attack and ruin our country
the law is what you make it.
Did you thought law was somehow divine before? Laws were always made to serve those who rule since their inception.
If you spent half a million dollars for a degree a have a bridge to sell you
I've never seen someone get so many free passes for the stuff he does.
This is less a "free pass" so much as all things going to plan.
Cannon is a trump appointed croney who has been delaying the trial and doing everything in her power to protect trump. And now the supreme court gave them an out and she instantly took it.
This is literally what republicans have been working toward for decades. Immunity by corrupting the government at every level.
Honestly for a long time I was really hopeful that the fact that he was doing it out in the open and everyone could see that he was abusing the hell out of every little loophole he could find, and creating some new ones, would mean that we'd start closing those loopholes when he was out of office and we might even see an era of reform.
He's been out of office for 4 years and all the courts have managed to do is LEGALIZE HIS MISCONDUCT! I feel like I'm finally starting to except our collective fate and now there's nothing left to do but watch it burn down around us.Yeah, thought the same.
And it's not only that, a few things occurred or are in the midst of happening ( at the worldwide level ), that i was sure wouldn't be possible, because no one would do that shit and/or people would not let it happen.
But, boy was i wrong...
Most governments around the world and their politicians regularly get away with even war crimes. This isn't anything new.
Oh, suddenly she can move quickly on something when there's political cover to do what she actually wants.
Unbelievable corruption. And the liberal media is going to be tripping over themselves to talk about this like it's some complicated issue, rather than straightforward political corruption.
The "liberal media" is not "tripping over themselves to talk about this like it's some complicated issue".
The Washington Post called bullshit:
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s ruling is a remarkable win for Trump, whose lawyers have thrown longshot argument after longshot argument to dismiss the case. Other courts have rejected similar arguments to the one that he made in Florida about the legality of Smith’s appointment.
...
Cannon’s decision comes as Trump is preparing to be formally nominated as the Republican presidential nominee in this year’s election, with the Republican National Convention beginning in Milwaukee on Monday.
...
The legal theory that Smith was illegally appointed and funded has generally been considered far-fetched. Trump’s legal team didn’t adopt the argument in court until conservative legal groups pushed it.
This is as far as they can go in saying that "this decision is unhinged" while still maintaining their aura of objectivity. They're not going to do it explicitly in the main article, that will come in the opinion pieces that will be released in a few hours, surely
Nowhere do they explicitly connect this to her political ideology. That's exactly my point, they're soft-selling it.
The liberal media (no quotes needed, they're corporate neoliberal) refuses to actually call a spade a spade.
This is not a critical article, this is just them shrugging and being like "Oh, well, it seems like tenuous grounds for dismissal but thems the licks."
"Maintaining an aura of objectivity" is itself blatant pro-fascist bias!
"objectivity" is bullshit and will end up getting hundreds of millions of people killed.
She really dismissed it over the appointment of a special prosecutor? Completely insane, but the fake Supreme Court will probably rubber stamp it. America is so fucked.
Its all good, now they can have her removed from the case
This. Jack Smith hasn't been able to nail her on any of her antics thus far, as they've been plausibly deniable, but her specious reasoning for the dismissal is a prime target for reversal by the 11th Circuit. She's so bad at her job, she can't even stall properly.
If Smith doesn't go to the 11th Circuit, then he was a terrible choice to begin with, and he was never going to win anything.
and she doesn't get to rule on a lot of the key decisions she had been dragging her feet on, so when she is replaced that judge will not have to inherit her bullshit decisions on important aspects of the case.
This is a complete denial of the authority of both the executive and legislative branches. It was a congressional law passed that created the department of justice and explicitly gave the attorney general the authority to prosecute for any crimes the United States has a stake in.
That was so Republicans could go after Democrats. It's totally different now that Daddy Trump is being held accountable for his crimes.
Why is it even OK for any case involving a former president to be tried before any judge that he appointed?
It isn't. The framers of the constitution believed that judges would put the letter of the law ahead of their own personal convictions and conduct themselves honorably by recusing themselves from cases where there could be even a hint of impropriety or conflict of interest. I'm sure they also assumed that a judge who ignored those social norms and committed such a nakedly partisan act would be held to account by Congress, who would have a collectively vested interest is using their constitutional power as a check against the Judicial.
Unfortunately, we live in a timeline where loyalty to one's political party comes ahead of all else, and Congress would rather cede their ability to govern entirely than turn against "one of their own". Even if the result is objectively bad for everyone. The failure of the framers to codify these rules are exactly why we are in this situation today, and nothing short of a constitutional convention will fix it at this point.
The prosecutor chose that judge
District Judge Aileen Cannon said in a 93-page order that she has granted Trump's bid to dismiss the indictment based on the unlawful funding and appointment of special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges against the former president.
So this should be easy for appeals court to overturn right?
Trump Appointed Judge Aileen Cannon just made it LEGAL to share TOP SECRET SCIF DOCUMENTS with LITERALLY anybody in the World including our Enemies! But it's JUDGE MERCHAN'S DAUGHTER we need to worry about!
Nope. She just said it was ok for trump. Rules for thee.
War Thunder players are going to be so stoked!
And he slides out of another one.... Fucker is so slippery that even bullets don't stick.
This gave Jack Smith the ability to take this and appeal it, which he previously could not do because she refused to publish actual orders ever since Smith appealed a previous bad decision by her and won.
There is simply no way Smith loses this appeal, it will end up in the Supreme Court and that is where the final nail will fall for this case.
Furthermore, she had a FUCK TON of things to make a decision on that were key to the case, thus when she is removed those decisions can still be made instead of the next judge inheriting her bullshit. There is still hope, which is pathetic that we need any but it is what it is.
You know what they say...
The good die young; assholes live forever.
teflon smuck
What in the actual fuck is this cunty shit?! God fucking dammit.
Ironically this would also invalidate any of the cases against Hunter Biden if the supreme court agrees with her.
"IrONiCAllY". dude. if you haven't been paying even the slightest attention, the fix is in for Trump alone, it does not translate to anyone else, for anything else. jfc.
Cannon's ruling is going to be appealed. If it gets appealed all the way to the supreme court, again (and Clarence Thomas has specifically asked for this in one of his prior rulings), and the supreme court holds with them, then any charges brought by a special counsel in any case are gone. Her ruling invalidates special counsels in general. The office that is pressing charges against Hunter Biden will no longer exist.
The scary part about this is it means that if Trump were to win he would have every excuse and cover from the judiciary to hand pick his own justice department attorney hires to go after people with no semblance of independence. After all, special counsels aren't even allowed to be used anymore. So you're of course right, it does fit into a larger fascist plant, and I certainly don't mean to imply that it doesn't or this isn't all for Trump's benefit.
I just wanted to point out that the current move would also be able to get Hunter Biden off the hook on the off chance that it gets anyone blindly supporting Trump immunity to stop and think for a second that maybe this isn't actually a good thing (since a lot of them seem to have some pretty extreme beliefs about Hunter Biden going to jail).
The autocratic dictatorship is imminent and I don't have a current passport. Not sure what the future holds.
If push comes to shove your passport is only the first step. You would need to actually find a country to take you, and countries don't hand out citizenship like candy unless you're rich. Without a second citizenship, you would be very restricted in where you can work.
Your best bet is if your parents or grandparents came from abroad, some countries have blanket policies to have 1st or 2nd generations come back to their ancestral homeland. It very much varies by country, you would have to do your own research. It might be worth doing as a last resort.
I may look into the other genealogical direction. My daughter has skills that are globally in demand and she's probably more upset about America than I ever could be. Maybe there's a bring your parent along program out there somewhere.
I'm fifteen years out from viable retirement. If I can hold on that long, there are several places I could go on my own accord.
You and me both.
We really live in the worst timeline.
I'm sure that in all the other parallel universes where Trump exists, he's a used car salesman.
An ex-used car salesman. He's doing 5-15 in Rikers protective custody for raping a minor.
He kinda is in this universe...
Fucking traitor cunt. No wonder that kid in PA took matters into his own hands. This is unbelievable.
WSJ this morning. The last bit is a stunning self own after Cannon flushed the last remaining parts of the justice system down the toilet today.
"Leaders on both sides need to stop describing the stakes of the election in apocalyptic terms. Democracy won't end if one or the other candidate is elected. Fascism is not aborning if Mr. Trump wins, unless you have little faith in American institutions."
People are picking sides. If you believe trump will win, and you're a coward, and you know that he will go on a reign of terror after inauguration then it makes sense to get in line as soon as possible. Last in line are first against the wall after all. And there will be people against the wall. Mark my words.
Pelosi, Obama, Biden and his family, shumer, aoc, and Cohen will be arrested for treason within weeks and executed. I know it sounds crazy but... ::gestures vaguely at everything::
Doesn't even need a reason. He just has to "gesture vaguely," to borrow your turn of phrase, at Official Acts™. He's already got a hitlist, so he just needs the levers of power to cross off names with impunity.
Well, we have a lot less faith today thanks to Eileen Cannon and the majority of the rigged SCOTUS.
Considering how much Team Trump has dismantled already, it is very rational to think these thoughts.
That should be reversed in about a week.
And then reversed again when the Extreme Court gets a hold of it. It must be nice to have your criminal cases decided by justices you've appointed.
Exactly
Supreme Court is on recess until October.
And you wonder why people are taking shots at him now. The system has failed us.
Taking shots at him won’t fix anything. He’s just a demagogue figure head for the movement created by billionaires and their foundations. If people want to fix America, we need billionaires cowering in fear. They are so bold in their corruptions because they get away with it.
Also that but the shots would help in the short term so we have a long term
The fascist in chief is having the best week he could for his 2024 run. I'm glad I won't be seeing any of my maga relatives any time soon, they must be insufferable right now.
He's had several good weeks on the trot.
Wow, is there anything this guy can’t dodge?
Hopefully he can't dodge two attemps. Attempts to be held resposible of course. No other meaning.
If it's attempts be be held responsible for something, that's gotta be in the hundreds by now.
Slippery greasy fuck. It would be pretty easy for me to believe that God sent him here as the most blatantly obvious punishment to mankind he could come up with. Like if God came out of the sky smacking his head and saying, "you dumb mother fuckers, why are you still denying my existence? Do you think this useless blob has risen to these ranks and can avoid all logical consequences of gross negligence and evildoing on his own accord? Beelzebub himself had it harder than this guy and was 500x more clever!" I'd have to look at him and say, yeah man, you've got a good point going there. Sorry about that, could you maybe stop it now though?
So we aren't going to remove him after impeaching him twice.
We aren't going to try him after indicting and arresting him.
We aren't going to sentence him after convicting him.
I guess we have to look to the Founding Fathers for what to do, looks like Ben Franklin has our backs.
NSFW language:
I wish more political commentators would wrestle with this fact. I understand the need to remain calm and denounce violence, and we should certainly do that! But at the same time, the discussion needs to be had about what to do when all the other options are exhausted. And as you've already outlined, we're running out of options. Basically everything hinges on the vote in November, and I'm under no illusion that Trump and the GQP and SCQTUS will steal it if it's any closer than it was last time. Then what?
I hate to say it, and I know it's going to sound fatalistic, but her decision is very likely going to stand.
Clarence Thomas literally handed her this argument on a silver platter. And say what you will about him, the legal system still considers him one of nine justices of the highest court in the land, and his words still carry that legal weight.
If Jack Smith appeals, there's (IMO), a 50/50 chance he wins on appeal. I could see the appeals court using things like logic and rational thought, kicking Cannon off the case and reinstating the charges against Trump (Or however that would work in the legal sense). But I could also see them saying that since she was merely following what Clarence Thomas told her to do, her decision is on sound legal footing, would most likely survive Supreme Court scrutiny, her decision was proper based on the SC ruling, and the decision stands. And from a strictly legal standpoint, they'd be right in doing so.
And if this case were to make it all the way up to the SC......since Cannon was literally following their blueprint, there's 0% chance that they'll suddenly rule against her. Nothing good can come out of appealing to the Supreme Court, and in fact it may be exactly what this supreme court wants and why Clarence Thomas added that little tidbit into the decision, so the SC can rule that all special counsels are illegal and the entire J6 investigation was unconstitutional as a result.
(Of course, Hunter Biden's conviction will still stand, because reasons.....)
This case is dead. The other three are on life support, and the doctor has already called for the chaplain to deliver last rites.
It's even worse than that, it had nothing to do with Thomas or SC. She claims the AG has no constitutional authority to appoint a special counsel.
Special councils usurp legislative authority???
All the legislature can do is pass laws! If those laws never get enforced there is no legislative authority!
Cannon has ursurped legislative authority...
The guy can do anything... unreal.
Except hold a glass of water with one hand. Or walk down a gentle slope unassisted.
Or control his own bowels.
It's interesting to think it's taken a long time before a President was able to so obviously expose the cracks in the American constitution. It took someone entirely without shame or integrity to do so, but he did it during his first term and his second is going to be even more abusive. How does America fix this system going forwards? With the country so divided and polarised, it feels like another civil war might be the only way to solve that, but a civil war is unthinkable. But then so much else that was unthinkable has already happened in recent years.
americans will still firmly believe "it'll never happen in this country" even as roving bands of newly deputized trump gestapo squads are going door to door demanding to know where your loyalties lie
obviously expose the cracks in the American constitution
out of curiosity, what exactly did he do to "obviously expose the cracks in the American constitution".
For instance the fact that you can stuff the supreme court with marionettes and then the country is yours.
This is why someone tried to assassinate Trump the other day.
The appellate court is gonna reverse that immediately.
And if they don’t: I guess it was nice having an illusion of a justice system for a while.
The Roberts court is a joke and obviously delaying any rulings they can until after the election to protect the wealthy and powerful from the law everyone else is restricted under. Cannon just takes the stupidity one step further.
All hail the oligarchs /s
Court is on recess until October at this point, and even when they're back in session, the Court holds off on announcing rulings until June, that's standard practice.
Sounds good let's shut down and recess all industries until October not just justice.
The headline should say "Corrupt Judge dismisses Trump documents case"
"Corrupt trump-appointed judge dismisses slam dunk trump case"
US Presidents cam really do anything it seems...
I'm glad I don't live in america but if that idiot gets in there is potential threats to other countries
when
ifthat idiot gets in there is potential threats to every other country
This man will never see another legal consequences in his life.
;)
What convenient timing.
It's actually not. The more worrying proposition was that she waited for a jury to be seated -- attaching jeopardy -- and then dismissing the charges with prejudice.
This certainly pushes it way past the election, but that seemed a certainty anyway.
Fucking filth
Ha ha ha, democracy, sure.
The system of the USA only works, if the president is a good person, caring for the good of the nation and all of its citizens.
Trump and his cronies are bad people though, and the house of cards that is the constitution and the separation of powers falls apart.
Well, if the legal justice system won't do it's job, maybe a vig- ...oh wait...
So nice of his loyal toadie to let him off the hook like that.
In the unlikely event the law still applies to Donald Trump and this gets overturned on appeal, does this mean it can go to a new judge?
The process goes district court -> appeals court -> Supreme Court. Cannon is a district (trial) Court judge; if Smith chooses to appeal the dismissal (which he will because her dismissal reasoning is dogshit) it will go to the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. After the appeals court rules on the procedure used in the trial court (with NO NEW ARGUEMENTS!), then either party could choose to make a final appeal to the Supreme court- and we all know what they will rule on. However the Supreme Court is not obligated to take on cases referred from an appellate court. And nowhere in this process can they refer to a new trial judge.
What a fucking joke
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Washington — The federal judge overseeing the case alleging former President Donald Trump mishandled sensitive government documents after leaving the White House has dismissed the charges against him.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The original article contains 37 words, the summary contains 37 words. Saved 0%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
So I read more, in the end...
Does it count as violence if I hope (and only that) that "someone" "takes care" of her? Obviously rule of law means nothing to these people so it's just tit for tat.
She is another piece of the corruption puzzle that needs expungement
I don't want to say I'm surprised by this, but JFC...
Question for those in the U.S...
Would this news, highlighting the 'forgotten' stuff again, deaden the probable 'electoral boost' he'll get from the attempted assassination?
Seems like bad news when the case was all but stalled with no news about it in the media... Now it'll probably get more news traction as it's appealed over the coming months.
Wishful thinking?
Nobody supporting him at this stage cares about his wrongdoing/the country.
And the whole deification of the assassination attempt survivor begins....
So he got away with it, like everything else. What lesson is this supposed to teach the nation?
I've been reading European news outlets for the past few days. They don't even acknowledge Biden anymore. He's barely mentioned. Everyone is debating and discussing how to deal with the next Trump term. The assassination attempt has really confirmed to them that Trump will 100 percent be the next president. Felonies and all.
Well we also give more atention to hurricanes than clear skyes
Just win after win after win.