(NEW YORK) — A federal judge’s decision Monday to dismiss Donald Trump’s classified documents case elevated a widely disputed theory about the legitimacy of special counsels to derail one of the most serious legal threats faced by the former president, legal experts told ABC News.
Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment “breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme” because Congress did not authorize Smith’s appointment and funding.
The decision — a major victory for Trump on the heels of the Supreme Court decision that broadened the scope of presidential immunity — not only sidelined the former president’s documents case, but also could upend the longstanding practice of appointing special counsels to independently conduct investigations and bring charges, experts told ABC News.
“Special prosecutors like Smith have been the norm for decades,” said Pace University School of Law professor Bennett Gershman. “It’s never been held by the court in any of these cases that the special prosecutor had to be first created by Congress before the President.”
A spokesperson for the special counsel said the Department of Justice has authorized an appeal of the ruling, which could trigger a lengthy process that could bring Cannon’s decision all the way to the Supreme Court for review.
“I’m sure that Jack Smith will … seek an expedited appeal,” said former federal prosecutor Josh Naftalis. “This is probably another Supreme Court case, for better or for worse.”
If the appeal continues through January and Trump becomes president, he could direct his own Justice Department to drop the case — killing the appeal.
A ‘bizarre’ ruling
Some legal experts ABC News spoke with said they weren’t surprised with Cannon’s decision to dismiss the classified documents case, pointing to Cannon’s previous rulings that favored the former president.
“It’s completely expected,” Michael Gerhard, a constitutional scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told ABC News. “[Cannon] has had a pattern for some time of issuing rulings that favor Trump, and it’s also been expected she would do whatever she could to help Trump.”
David Sklansky, a law professor at Stanford Law, called the decision “not exactly a surprise” but expects the decision to be reversed.
“It’s hard to see the great constitutional principle that the judge thinks that she’s defending,” Sklansky said of Cannon’s position, which rejected longstanding Supreme Court precedent dating back to the Nixon administration.
Stanford law professor Robert Weisber described the dismissal of the case as “bizarre” because other courts have largely rejected similar arguments.
“A quick look at Cannon’s ruling suggests that she engaged in a pretty bizarre form of statutory interpretation to find that they didn’t authorize Smith’s appointment,” said Weisber. “There’s been a general understanding for decades now … that this sort of special counsel appointment is perfectly legitimate.”
The Thomas factor
It was in February that Trump’s team first filed their motion to dismiss the case based on Smith’s appointment. Five months later, following a two-day hearing last month, Cannon dismissed the case Monday in a 93-page order.
On three occasions in her ruling, Cannon referenced Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity, in which he questioned Smith’s authority as special counsel.
“It seems like Judge Cannon accepted Justice Thomas’ invitation and concurrence to kick this on these grounds,” said former federal prosecutor Jarrod Schaeffer.
“Justice Thomas’s concurrence is really providing her with the rationale that she needed to get rid of the case,” said Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A new judge?
If Smith’s appeal is successful, the case could be remanded back to the District Court to proceed to trial, according to Schaeffer. That could provide an opportunity to have a new judge oversee the case.
According to Shaeffer, Smith could ask the Court of Appeals or the District Court to disqualify Cannon from the case by proving “her impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
The bar for disqualification itself is high — including proving a judge’s personal bias or conflict of interest — so legal experts appear to be split over the odds of getting a new judge assigned to the case.
“She hasn’t really done anything that suggests that she’s so out of line that she does not have the ability and the fitness to oversee the case,” said Gershman. “Although I disagree with everything she’s done in so many areas, I don’t know that Smith has enough of a case that she should be recused.”
Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Marymount University, said that Smith might be able to highlight a pattern of conduct based on past rulings and conduct in court that suggests she is partial to Trump.
“I think there’s a pattern that’s developing that is quite troublesome,” Levitt said.
(NEW YORK) — Writer, entrepreneur, and influencer Nathaniel “Nat” Eliason sat down with ABC News to discuss his new book, “Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance.”
Eliason needed to make money quickly, so he turned to the most promising get-rich-quick opportunity at the time, crypto. By 2022, he was deeply involved in the world of cryptocurrency.
As a self-taught programmer, Eliason’s journey was a roller-coaster of earning and losing millions of dollars, a testament to his determination and resourcefulness. His new book lays out his learning journey and is a source of inspiration for others.
Eliason talked about the good, bad, and ugly in his cryptocurrency journey.
ABC NEWS: In 2021, writer and entrepreneur Nat Eliason was unemployed with a baby on the way. He needed a quick way to make money and as much as possible, so Nat turned to the most promising get-rich-quick opportunity of the time: crypto. By 2022, Nat was deep inside the world of crypto as a self-taught programmer who earned and lost millions of dollars. He shares his journey in a new book, “Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance. “
Joining us now, Nat Eliason. Thank you so much for being here tonight. We really appreciate it.
NAT: Yeah, thank you so much for having me on.
ABC NEWS: Nat, I want to get straight to it because I have a lot of questions. Your journey into the world of crypto began as a need for financial security. How did it go? Give me the good, bad and ugly as quickly as you can.
NAT: Well, it started where a lot of people’s journey started then. Trying to day trade Dogecoin on my phone after seeing Elon Musk and whoever else talking about it online and, in the span of a year, it went from moving around a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars to looking at my, at least my paper amount of crypto that I had. And seeing that it had passed over $10 million and did not get nearly all of that, any most of it back out. But to see that kind of rise and fall in such a short time period was a pretty, pretty wild experience.
ABC NEWS: You write, “Getting rich is a long, slow, steady process. Get a job. Do your work. Get promoted. Invest in your 401 K. But what if there were a faster way?” In today’s economic climate, we all know this is all we’re talking about as we creep closer to the election. There are a lot of families struggling out there, and a lot of people that are going to be saying, like, I would like a really quick way to get rich. Did your experiences in the crypto world shape your views on the conventional path to financial success?
NAT: It definitely shaped my views on how appealing the get-rich-quick idea is, and how deceptive it can be. Something I share a lot in the book are the many ways that the game is rigged against you behind the scenes. If your goal is to try to make as much money as fast as possible, try to follow in the footsteps of people that you see on Twitter or on other social media sharing their wins. And it really gave me a lot more respect for trying to actually get good at a skill, make money slower, be more patient with it, because often when you get really quick wins, they disappear just as quickly.
ABC NEWS: So then to follow up on that, I mean, would you recommend this to the average person? I mean, you know, if I’m having a conversation with my mom this afternoon, do I need to tell her: ‘Let’s let’s talk about crypto’?
NAT: I definitely believe that crypto is going to become a larger and larger part of our financial and tech lives, but a lot of it will be in the background. It certainly won’t be a day trading Dogecoin on your phone. I think that the big ones like Bitcoin and Ethereum are going to slowly continue to become more relevant in our day-to-day lives.
ABC NEWS: And we know the first tip you’re going to give people is to read your book before starting to invest and look down these different avenues. But can you give us some more practical steps for the average people, myself included, when you’re talking about the crypto space or places like this.
NAT: I think that, on the one level, if you’re just looking at it financially, then you don’t have to overthink it, right? Bitcoin and Ethereum have kind of been the big ones. They’ve been here for the longest. And right now you can buy the Bitcoin ETF in your Vanguard account or one of your other trading accounts. And Ethereum will be able to do that soon, too. So you don’t have to overthink that side of it. But what I would encourage people to do is to look into some of the technology that’s being built, not just whatever crazy coin is going up 1,000%, because there are really cool, new tools being built like some of these stablecoins as new payment rails instead of credit cards and things like that. That could be really interesting parts of our financial life in the future.
ABC NEWS: All right. I love it. Thank you so much Nat for joining us. “Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance” is now available for purchase. Check it out.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump said the assassination attempt on his life over the weekend has left an impact.
In a phone call with ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl on Monday as the Republican National Convention kicked off, Karl asked the former president if the close call with the bullet striking his right ear “changed him?”
“I don’t like to think about that, but, yes,” Trump said, adding that the incident “has an impact.”
In the hours that followed the assassination attempt at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, President Joe Biden reached out to his political opponent. Asked about their phone call, Trump described the conversation as “very nice,” adding of the man he’s vying against for the presidency, “He couldn’t have been nicer.”
During an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday, President Biden was also asked about his phone call with Trump after this past weekend’s shooting, which he described as a “very cordial” conversation.
“I told him how concerned I was and wanted to make sure I knew how he was actually doing. He sounded good. He said he was fine. And he thanked me for calling him. I told him he was literally in the prayers of Jill and me, and I hoped his whole family was weathering this,” Biden said.
While speaking with ABC News’ Karl, Trump marveled at the people he said called him in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, including prominent individuals who have been critical of him in the past.
Trump also said his right ear is doing fine and that he hopes the bandage will be off by the time he speaks on Thursday at the RNC.
While speaking with Karl, Trump also addressed choosing Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate.
“I get along with him great,” Trump said of his VP pick.
He acknowledged that Vance had said some negative things about him, but “once he got to know me, he was all in.”
Asked how he plans to use Vance in the campaign, Trump said, “I’m going to leave him in Pennsylvania.”
Then, Trump said, he would send him to Wisconsin and “a lot of other places where people are hurting.”
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle sat down with ABC News in her first network interview since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Via ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — In her first network interview since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said that the Pennsylvania rally shooting was “unacceptable.”
“It was unacceptable,” she said in an interview Monday with ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
The violent incident on Saturday, which left one rallygoer dead, marked the first time a current or former president has been wounded in an attempted assassination since Ronald Reagan in 1981.
When she first learned of the shooting, Cheatle said she was shocked and concerned — both for Trump and for the Secret Service agents who responded to the incident.
“It was obviously a situation that as a Secret Service agent, no one ever wants to occur in their career,” she said.
‘Buck stops with me’
As the head of the agency, Cheatle said it’s her responsibility to investigate what went wrong and make sure nothing like it can happen again.
“The buck stops with me,” she said. “I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”
Cheatle responded to reports that the suspect was seen and identified as potentially suspicious before he opened fire, saying that “a very short period of time” passed between then and the shooting.
“I don’t have all the details yet, but it was a very short period of time,” she said. “Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult.”
She is expected to testify before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee next Monday, July 22.
Director says to have confidence in Secret Service
Still, she said, the American people should have confidence in the Secret Service’s ability to protect the president and former president.
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, she “immediately” started looking at the protective details of those under Secret Service protection.
She said she reached out to the former president’s staff and attempted to contact him but hasn’t gotten through.
Cheatle also pushed back on the misinformation that is out there regarding the assassination attempt.
“Secret Service is not political,” she said. “Security is not political. People’s safety is not political. And that’s what we’re focused on as an agency.”
And she reiterated, as other officials have said, that there is “no truth” to the rumors the former president’s detail asked for more resources.
The decision to take out the shooter, she said, was a “split second decision” the agent made while perched on the roof.
“They have the ability to make that decision on their own. If they see that it’s a threat and they did that in that instance,” she said.
“And I applaud the fact that they made that decision and didn’t have to check with anybody and thankfully neutralized the threat.”
Michael and Amber DiFrischia said they were standing outside the security perimeter of a Donald Trump rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, when they saw a would-be assassin shimmying up a nearby rooftop and opening fire on the former president. Via ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — As federal investigators continue to probe how a gunman managed to climb atop a roof and fire a barrage of shots at former President Donald Trump in an apparent assassination attempt on Saturday, multiple witnesses said they tried to point out the suspect to police and Secret Service agents before gunfire erupted.
Roughly eight minutes after Trump took the stage at a campaign rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, witnesses said they saw the alleged gunman shimmying up the sloping roof of the American Glass Research building outside the security perimeter of the rally.
The building is within 400 feet of the rally podium where Trump was speaking and was being used by local police as a staging area when the gunman got on the roof, U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
Witness Ryan Knight, who was working at the rally selling pizza slices and bottled water with his boss, said he was standing outside the security perimeter at a fence line when someone standing next to him said “This guy’s got a gun” and pointed.
“I look over at the AGR building and there was a guy prone, laying down on the AGR roof,” Knight told ABC News. “At that point, I look over and the guy starts taking shots at the president. I am losing my mind. I’m thinking, ‘Get down on the ground.'”
According to a timeline of events pieced together by the ABC News video verification team, Trump took the stage at 6:03 p.m. local time to loud applause and at 6:05 p.m. began speaking: “This is a big crowd. This is a big, big beautiful crowd.”
Knight, who says he is a registered Republican and a supporter of the former president, explained that once Trump took the stage, he and his boss walked over to the fence line about 50 feet from the AGR building to listen to the speech.
Knight said the rally was initially joyful, with attendees yelling their support for Trump.
“We were just having a great time. I mean, everybody was in happy spirits,” Knight said.
But at 6:09 p.m., bystander video taken outside the security perimeter near the fence line and reviewed by ABC News picked up someone yelling, “He’s got a gun!”
At 6:10 p.m., another bystander video reviewed by ABC News showed a police officer walking around the AGR building investigating reports of a suspicious person reported to be in the area.
Around that same time, Trump turned his head to the right to look at a Jumbotron flashing immigration statistics, according to video footage. About a minute later, the staccato of gunshots rang out and the GOP presidential nominee suddenly clutched his right ear and went to the ground after apparently noticing blood on his hand, according to the video.
A New York Times photographer took a photo that appeared to capture the path of a bullet whizzing by Trump’s head. Three rallygoers were shot in the incident, including 50-year-old volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore who was killed shielding his family from the gunshots, officials said. The two other rallygoers were listed in stable condition.
Secret Service agents rushed to Trump and covered him with their bodies as chaos erupted.
Mike and Amber DiFrischia of Adamsville, Pennsylvania, told ABC News that they arrived at the rally around 5:53 p.m. and decided to sit in the shade outside the security perimeter until Trump began to speak. The couple said they moved up to the fence line to listen to Trump. Amber DiFrischia said it was the first time she had attended a Trump rally.
“We were only at the fence for maybe five minutes, Trump came on, and then shortly after he started speaking, my wife said, ‘Michael what is going on behind us?'” Mike DiFrischia said. “We turned around and we saw people pointing and running and that’s when we walked away from the fence and noticed that he [the gunman] was shimmying up the roof.”
At first, he said thought it was someone just trying to get a better view of Trump.
“Then the guy behind me said, ‘The guy’s got a gun.’ And as soon as he said ‘gun,’ everybody started running and screaming,” Mike DiFrischia said.
He said he and others could see the gunman “perfectly” on the roof because they were a short distance away, but police couldn’t see him immediately due to being at the base of the building.
“The law enforcement was running around. It was pretty hectic. They could not see him, the police officers. They were too close to the building,” Mike DiFrischia said.
He said police officers were yelling, “Where is he at?”
“And we were trying to explain to them, he’s right there,” Mike DiFrischia said.
Amber DiFrischia added, “How could this happen so quickly?”
Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe said law enforcement officials told him that a Butler Township police officer was vaulted onto the roof and confronted by the gunman who pointed his weapon at the officer.
“He dropped down because the gentleman was turning with the firearm,” Slupe told ABC News, adding that the officer immediately radioed in about the gunman.
According to the ABC News video verification team’s timeline, gunfire erupted around 6:11 p.m. Investigators believe the gunman immediately opened fire after being interrupted by the Butler Township police officer.
“I got on the ground and I’m watching him shoot,” Knight told ABC News of the gunman. “I could see the smoke coming out of the barrel of his gun.”
Video of the mayhem showed a Secret Service counter-sniper firing at the gunman from a rooftop behind the stage where Trump was giving his speech.
“I was scared for my life,” said Knight, explaining that he and other spectators were standing in what was an open field with nowhere to take cover.
He said he heard a shot that sounded louder than the initial gunfire and saw the gunmen’s head kick back as he was shot.
“My main thought is why the Secret Service was not on top of that building,” Knight said. “There should have been people on top of it. I don’t know how or why that got missed.”
Cheatle, the Secret Service director, told ABC News chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas on Monday that local authorities were tasked with securing the building where the alleged shooter fired the shots and confirmed that local police were present inside the building while the shooter was on the roof.
“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Cheatle said. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”
President Joe Biden said Sunday that he has ordered an independent investigation of the security provided at Saturday’s rally.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service, told George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” on Monday that the 20-year-old gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, should never have been able to get a clear line of sight on the former president.
“George, a direct line of sight like that to the former president of the United States should not occur,” Mayorkas said.
Cheatle told ABC News in the interview on Monday that the Pennsylvania rally shooting was “unacceptable.”
“I don’t have all the details yet, but it was a very short period of time,” she said about the shooter being seen by witnesses before he opened fire. “Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult.”
MILWUAKEE — The first day of the Republican National Convention came with a big reveal: J.D. Vance is Donald Trump’s choice to be his running mate in the 2024 election.
The 39-year-old senator was met with rousing cheers as he walked onto the convention floor, where he stopped for selfies and to shake hands as he made his way toward the Ohio delegation.
The biggest applause, however, came moments later when Speaker Mike Johnson announced the joint Trump-Vance ticket.
ABC News spoke with delegates outside the convention center just after Vance’s appearance. Many described him as someone they could see being a faithful messenger of Trump’s agenda.
“I think it was a great selection by President Trump because Senator Vance’s conservative bona fides have been proven time and time again,” said John Merrill, a delegate from Alabama.
Merrill said he believed Vance would support Trump in nominating conservative judges and to carry out his immigration policies, including finishing the border wall.
Ohio State Rep. Cindy Abrams, a member of the Ohio delegation, praised Vance as someone who “supports law enforcement and law and order, most importantly securing our border.”
“I was really excited to hear J.D. Vance,” said Geraldine Wade, an alternate delegate from Georgia. “Everybody kept guessing, ‘Who is he gonna pick?’ but we wanted somebody who was adopting the MAGA agenda.”
“He has the youth and he has the enthusiasm and we think he would be a good person to carry on the agenda of Donald Trump,” Wade added.
Delegates from the Ohio delegation said they were “very excited” and “proud” about his nomination.
“We’re psyched that J.D. has taken up the mantle and sacrificed for his country and for our state Ohio, and we’re thankful to his family for also taking up this grave responsibility,” one member of the delegation said.
But Vance, a first-term senator, was little known in political circles until his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” catapulted him into the national spotlight. He won his seat in the Senate in 2022 with the support of Trump, despite having once declared himself a “never-Trumper” — statements he’s long since reversed.
Also Trump’s list of potential vice presidential picks were Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Both Rubio and Burgum were notified that they were not selected, ABC News reported earlier Monday.
“Everybody has their own favorite candidates but I think Senator Vance was on everybody’s list,” Merrill said of the vice presidential contenders. “He may not have been everyone’s favorite but he is certainly our favorite today.”
“I think that’s a fantastic pick,” said Bill Oden, a delegate from South Carolina. “I know he wasn’t on the radar but the fact he’s a fellow service member — I’m retired Air Force and he’s a Marine — it’s great to have a vice president that’s got military experience so he can advise the president on a lot of the actions we are going to be facing in the future.”
“I really don’t know him, so it’s great to have a new face,” said convention attendee Mary-Beth Checkai. “It’s great to have changes. He’s young. He served in the military, so he’s got values. And he’s got a family to protect, so I think it’s a great choice to move the party forward.”
Vance enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in Iraq as a corporal with the public affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
Other veterans at the RNC also praised his background.
Tiffanie Ditlevson, an Air Force veteran who is now serving as a city council member in Indiana, said she hopes it will inspire young people to consider a career in the military.
“I think it balances Trump in a different way,” she said of Vance being selected as his running mate. “I think definitely President Trump brings a lot to the table in terms of being an executive and running the country and his perspective and mindset, and then also having a veteran in there.”
(NEW YORK) — The record heat that baked the West Coast for much of last week is arriving on the East Coast early this week and health departments are already preparing for heat-related emergencies.
More than 100 million people in 33 states were under heat alerts Monday morning.
In Philadelphia, where the heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — is forecast to reach 104 degrees on Monday, the city health department has issued a heat health emergency.
“We’ll have over 150 cooling centers open for our residents who need them,” Mayor Cherelle Parker said in a statement. “Please call 311 to find a cooling center near you. Check on your older neighbors. Make sure they’re safe. If we care for one another, we’ll get through this heat wave together.”
In addition to Philadelphia, major cities such as Washington, D.C., and Baltimore are under an excessive heat warning — the highest such alert for heat — on Monday.
New York City and Boston are under a heat advisory through Tuesday.
Record daily highs are possible in several cities Monday, including Raleigh, North Carolina (projected 101, record 99); Washington, D.C. (projected 100, record 100); Baltimore (projected 101, record 102); Reading, Pennsylvania (projected 100, record 100); Worcester, Massachusetts (projected 91, record 92); and Manchester, New Hampshire (projected 96, record 96).
The record heat will concentrate on the East Coast on Tuesday and could last into Wednesday.
Finally, a cold front will bring an end to the record heat in the East by Wednesday night into Thursday.
(WASHINGTON) — Monday’s surprise ruling by federal Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case appears unlikely to impact other cases involving Trump — or other cases brought by special counsels.
Cannon ruled Monday that Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel overseeing Trump’s documents case was unconstitutional because Smith was not appointed by the president or confirmed by Congress, leading her to dismiss the entire case.
“The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers,” Cannon wrote in a lengthy order. “That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere — whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not.” she wrote.
The ruling, on its face, seems to undermine the core of the special counsel statute — that an independent arbiter is necessary to investigate and possibly prosecute politically fraught matters.
But the ruling doesn’t put all special counsels under the microscope; Cannon’s order draws a distinction between other special counsels and Smith, who was never confirmed to any post by Congress.
Special counsels — like David Weiss, who is investigating President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden — have typically served previously as U.S. attorneys, who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Smith, in contrast, was previously the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee and was working for the International Criminal Court at the Hague prosecuting war crimes when he was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead both the classified documents probe and the federal election interference investigation.
Accordingly, Smith never went through a congressional confirmation process.
“In the end, there does appear to be a ‘tradition’ of appointing special-attorney-like figures in moments of political scandal throughout the country’s history. But very few, if any, of these figures actually resemble the position of Special Counsel Smith,” Cannon wrote in Monday’s decision. “Mr. Smith is a private citizen exercising the full power of a United States Attorney, and with very little oversight or supervision.”
Attorneys for Hunter Biden last year filed a motion to dismiss his gun prosecution citing the same Appropriations Clause at the heart of Cannon’s ruling. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika swiftly rejected Biden’s bid.
In the classified documents case, Smith could appeal Cannon’s the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back. The former president has denied all charges.
Judge Cannon noted that her ruling does not apply to other jurisdictions, meaning the order may not apply to Smith’s Jan. 6 election interference case, in which Trump last August pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
That case is currently delayed following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that the former president is entitled to presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts taken while in office. Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion in the Supreme Court ruling, took the position that Smith had been named special counsel without a proper legal basis, leading to speculation about what role that might play in Judge Cannon’s decision-making.
Although Judge Thomas did not name Cannon in his opinion, he said that lower courts should look at the question of how Smith was appointed.
Cannon’s ruling should also have no effect on the Georgia election interference case, which is currently paused while Trump appeals the court ruling that allowed Fulton County DA Fani Willis to stay on the case.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Trump has denied all charges.
Trump is also awaiting a decision by New York Judge Juan Merchan on whether the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling will impact Trump’s hush money conviction, which Trump’s attorneys argue was “tainted” by evidence and testimony that the Supreme Court’s ruling now makes off-limits.
The former president was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
(MILWAUKEE) — The Republican National Convention is set to kick off in Milwaukee on Monday — just two days after Donald Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday evening.
Despite the shooting, the gathering of more than 50,000 attendees, including an expected 2,400 Republican delegates, is slated to maintain its original programming as a time to bring the party together — but now newly energized by Trump’s amazing survival and raised-fist show of defiance.
Here’s how the news is developing:
JD Vance got a 20-minute heads-up on VP pick: Source Trump called JD Vance with the news that he was selecting the senator as his running mate roughly 20 minutes before announcing it on Truth Social, a source familiar with the call told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott
Roll call results in House Speaker Mike Johnson has announced that Trump has received 2,387 delegate votes — a unanimous result for the former president — following the conclusion of the convention roll call.
-ABC News’ Jacob Steinberg
McConnell booed as he awarded Kentucky’s delegates to Trump When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Kentucky would award its delegates to the former president, the tone in the convention center changed from its celebratory mood.
McConnell was joined by his wife, Elaine Chao, Trump’s former transportation secretary who resigned in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021.
The reception to McConnell’s delegate announcement was in marked contrast to the cheers of Trump allies as the party introduced a new-look platform and nominated a man McConnell said had morally failed the nation and invited the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, is stepping down from his position this fall.
‘Fight, fight, fight!,’ delegates chant Chants of “fight” popped up during the roll call — a nod to Trump, who could be seen mouthing “fight” and pumping his fist as he was taken off the stage following Saturday’s assassination attempt.
Following Delaware’s pledging of their votes to Trump, members of its delegation raised their fists in the air and chanted “fight, fight, fight!”
Wyoming delegates have done the same.
Idaho Republican Party chairwoman Dorothy Moon, while announcing delegates for Trump, led delegates in chanting “fight, fight, fight!”
-ABC News’ Jacob Steinberg and Tommy Barone
Trump clears threshold to lock in nomination Trump has officially cleared the numerical threshold at which he has locked in the nomination, with a pause in the roll call for celebration.
Florida, his adoptive home state, put him over the edge as his son, Eric Trump, announced the delegates.
-ABC News’ Tommy Barone
Donald Trump Jr. encouraged Vance choice, calls him the ‘American dream’ Donald Trump Jr. played a key role in his father picking Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate.
Sources tell ABC News the former president’s son “led a strong push” for him behind the scenes and that Trump made his decision in the last few hours.
Trump Jr. told ABC’s Rachel Scott on the RNC convention floor he was “incredibly excited.”
“J.D’s become a really good friend … his story is an incredible one, the American dream.”
“I know the man, I know the character,” Trump Jr. said of his friend, J.D. Vance.
-ABC’s John Santucci and Rachel Scott
Roll call vote underway The roll call vote to select Trump as the nominee is in progress, after the former president was formally nominated by Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufman and Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald.
“We want to remind all our delegates, alternates and guests that maintaining order during the roll call is extremely important,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
In his speech, Kaufman said that over the next four days, they will hear about Trump’s “broad and inspiring vision for our country.”
“This is not a program just for Republicans, but one for all Americans,” he said.
In his speech, McDonald played up Trump’s support for eliminating taxes on tips — a policy that plays well in the service-industry-dependent swing state of Nevada.
“In Nevada, a state that is resilient on service industry. President Trump has proposed to eliminate taxes on tips on day one,” McDonald said. “Unlike the Biden-Harris administration and the Democrats that increased taxes on tips.”
As Iowa cast its votes, Iowa GOP chair Kaufman gave a shoutout to basketball star Caitlin Clark, while Sen. Mike Lee of Utah shouted out JD Vance — Trump’s just-revealed VP pick — as he announced the state’s delegates for Trump.
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
Trump announces Vance as his running mate Trump announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance will be his running mate, writing on Truth Social that the Ohio Republican is “the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States.”
The decision caps off months of speculation and sees Trump elevate a 39-year-old first-term senator whose roughly year and a half tenure in the Senate has seen him emerge as a staunch ideological ally of the former president.
GOP party platform passes The Republicans have passed their party platform, despite dissent from the evangelical wing over softened language on abortion that better matches Trump’s current posture. A fair amount of “nayes” were heard in the convention hall, but not enough for the vote to fail.
Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., told delegates that the “platform was personally approved by President Donald J. Trump.”
“It’s a different kind of platform,” said platform co-chair Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., as she presented the platform for a vote.
“It is not a laundry list of special interests’ wishes, but a succinct, clear agenda and a promise to the American people.”
Before the overwhelming voice vote in Milwaukee, the platform had passed 84-14 by the platform committee.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd, Tommy Barone and Jacob Steinberg
Burgum told he is not Trump’s running mate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has been told he is not Trump’s running mate pick, three sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
Trump’s pick is expected to be announced at some point Monday.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Rick Klein, Katherine Faulders
RNC officially underway The Republican National Convention is underway. A live rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” filled the convention center in Milwaukee. Groups of delegate were seen before and during these opening ceremonies pumping their fists and chanting “fight, fight, fight,” taking up former President Trump’s gesture after the shooting at his rally as a symbol for the party’s nominating convention.
Crowds continued the chant during “God Bless the USA” ahead of a vote on the party’s platform.
RNC co-chair Michael Whatley gaveled the convention to order and asked for a moment of silence to honor the shooting.
As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was announced as an honorary co-chair, audible boos were heard from the crowd. The Senate leader, who will step down from his perch atop the GOP conference, has had a frosty relationship with the former president since Jan. 6, 2021. -ABC News’ Jay O’Brien
Burgum told he is not Trump’s running mate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has been told he is not Trump’s running mate pick, three sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
Trump’s pick is expected to be announced at some point Monday.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Rick Klein, Katherine Faulders
Rubio told he is not Trump’s running mate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been told he is not former President Donald Trump’s running mate pick, five sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
Trump’s pick is expected to be announced at some point Monday.
-ABC News’ John Santucci, Katherine Faulders, Rachel Scott, Rick Klein
Trump has made his VP selection Trump has selected his running mate, a senior campaign official told ABC News.
-ABC News’ John Santucci
Trump has made his VP selection Trump has selected his running mate, a senior campaign official told ABC News.
-ABC News’ John Santucci
Vivek Ramaswamy recounts ‘anger’ after Trump shooting, calls for unity Vivek Ramaswamy, speaking with reporters after his speech at the Heritage Policy Fest, joined Trump in stressing unity after the shooting at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally.
ABC News asked Ramaswamy for his response to Republicans like J.D. Vance going after Democrats and President Joe Biden in the wake of the attempted assassination attempt.
“Look, I think that there is a lot of understandable anger. I was … my first reaction was anger,” Ramaswamy said. “And the reason my first reaction was anger was that the only thing more tragic than what happened on Saturday is that if we’re being really honest with ourselves, all of us, it wasn’t totally a shock, actually. And that, that is maddening. And that … makes me angry as a citizen of the United States of America. But the question is, how do we channel that anger?”
Ramaswamy said Republicans have a “second chance that Lincoln didn’t have: to unite a country that this time didn’t have to fight a civil war, but avoids one.”
“If that bullet hit Donald Trump, we’d be in a very different place now,” he said. “And the fact that we’ve been given that chance, I think it’s our responsibility to step up and seize it not by compromising on our principles, but by actually reviving the principles that unite all of us. And by seeing the enemy as the ideology that we’re up against, rather than our fellow neighbors as our enemy combatants, and that’s what I call on not only the Republican Party but every American to do in the wake of what happened on Saturday.”
-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler
Pre-planned group of 1,700 National Guardsmen and other troops supporting RNC security As part of a plan that predates the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, roughly 1,700 National Guardsmen and several active-duty troops will assist other agencies with security at the Republican National Convention, according to Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh.
“In regards to the Republican National Convention, approximately 1,700 National Guard and a small number of active-duty personnel will be providing support to civil authorities from July 13 through 19. These personnel are supporting the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and Milwaukee Metro Police Department for 24/7 operations,” Singh said.
Singh emphasized that this support was pre-planned, and not related to the shooting at Trump’s rally over the weekend, nor was the force augmented as a result.
-Matt Seyler
Trump says he will announce VP pick today Former President Donald Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday morning that he will announce his pick for vice president on Monday.
The decision will come after months of speculation about who his running mate will be.
There will be a roll call vote on the presidential ticket, which includes the vice president, on Monday at the RNC.
Trump in Milwaukee as RNC set to begin The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump has thoroughly altered the stakes and tone of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which kicks off Monday, just two days after a shooter opened fire at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, grazing Trump’s ear and leading to a spectator’s death.
Trump arrived in Milwaukee Sunday afternoon, ahead of the RNC’s start on Monday.
In a social media post Sunday, Trump indicated that he was going to delay his trip, but decided he wouldn’t allow a “shooter” to change his scheduled plans to head to the RNC.
U.S. Secret Service and other officials said Sunday there are no plans to expand the security perimeter and that there are no known threats. Ahead of the shooting at his rally, the GOP convention was gearing up to be an extravagant event centered around symbolic, Trump-era Republican ideas and party unity, sealed on Thursday with the third nomination of the former president.
-ABC’s Brittany Shepherd, Kelsey Walsh and Isabella Murray
Trump says he’s scratching planned speech to stress unity instead As the Republican National Convention begins, the atmosphere will feel entirely different following former President Donald Trump’s attempted assassination.
A day after being grazed by a bullet, Trump indicated he plans to take advantage of the moment and deliver a message of unity.
The former president said he is scratching his original convention speech from rallying his base against President Joe Biden to now attempting to draw the country together, according to an interview he did with the Washington Examiner conducted as he boarded his flight to Milwaukee Sunday evening.
During the first official session, delegates — nearly 2,400 from across the nation — must approve the committee platform and formally designate a presidential ticket. The ticket will include Trump’s vice president who he has yet to name. The evening session’s theme is “Make America Wealthy Again.” Speeches will include issues focused on beating inflation, rising costs and creating more jobs.
(MILWAUKEE) — Former President Donald Trump has picked Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, placing a young, ideological ally alongside him on the Republican 2024 ticket.
Trump announced Vance would be his running mate on Monday, writing on Truth Social that the Ohio Republican is “the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States.”
The decision caps off months of speculation and sees Trump elevate a 39-year-old first-term senator whose roughly year and a half tenure in the Senate has seen him emerge as a staunch ideological ally of the former president.
“As Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The Trump campaign wasted no time promoting the former president’s pick, posting an ad on social media featuring a montage of Vance praising Trump.
“I am proud that I have been an ally of Donald Trump’s in Washington, D.C.,” Vance says in one of the clips in the ad.
The campaign is also fundraising off of the announcement, saying in a campaign email Monday afternoon that Trump “always knew” he “needed” Vance on his side.
President Joe Biden’s campaign released a statement on Vance being named Trump’s vice presidential pick, slamming Vance as someone who will further Trump’s “extreme MAGA agenda.”
“Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” Biden Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a statement.
Vice presidential hopefuls Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum both issued their support for the Republican ticket.
Following the announcement, Rubio posted to social media “#TrumpVance2024!!!”
In a social media post, Burgum said he looks forward to being on the campaign trail for the new Trump-Vance ticket. He also complimented Vance for his small-town roots and service to the county.
Who is J.D. Vance? Vance rose to fame through his 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy.” He evolved from a “never-Trump guy” to one of Trump’s strongest surrogates in an eight-year span.
Vance was born in Middleton, Ohio, and served in the Marine Corps. He later attended Ohio State University and eventually graduated from Yale Law School.
He was a corporate lawyer and then worked in the tech industry as a venture capitalist.
In 2016, Vance released his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which shared his story of growing up in poverty in America’s Rust Belt and being surrounded by violence and addiction.
Vance eventually became an emissary between the media and those in the Rust Belt during the 2016 election, discussing the issues important to those who had a similar background to him.
During this time, Vance made his disdain for Trump clear, saying he was a “never-Trump guy” in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016.
In August 2016, he told ABC News that he didn’t see Trump “offering many solutions.”
But Vance would eventually align with the former president, praising his time in office and apologizing for his attacks on him during an interview with Fox News in July 2021.
“I’ve been very open about the fact that I did say those critical things, and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy,” Vance said on Fox News in 2021.
His apology came around the same time Vance entered the race for the open Ohio Senate seat, which became one of the most competitive GOP primaries of the 2022 election cycle. Trump endorsed Vance for the job, which helped him win both the primary election and general election against Ohio Democrat Tim Scott.
In his role as senator, some of his most notable work has been responding to the East Palestine train derailment in his home state. He has also stayed true to his tough conservative brand, including opposing aid to Ukraine.
In 2024, Vance has been a reliable surrogate for Trump — appearing at campaign events, defending him in television appearances and helping the former president raise money for his campaign.
ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
