Trump Could Get Dragged Back to Court in Classified Documents Case

The classified documents case against Donald Trump is not dead yet, as special counsel Jack Smith is asking a federal appeals court to reinstate it. 

In July, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the 42 felony charges against the former president and convicted felon, ruling that Smith’s appointment to the case was unconstitutional. On Monday, Smith appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the dismissal is “at odds with widespread and longstanding appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government.” 

Trump allegedly broke the law by retaining classified documents from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and then refusing to return them to the federal government. Cannon was criticized for her handling of the classified documents case, bogging down proceedings by entertaining questionable motions from Trump’s defense and seemingly favoring the Republican presidential nominee. Her experience was called into question by legal experts including one of Trump’s former lawyers, Ty Cobb. A ruling in Smith’s favor could result in a new judge taking over the case, though notably Smith did not ask for Cannon’s removal in his brief to the 11th circuit.

Cannon’s dismissal came after the Supreme Court ruled that American presidents have immunity for their “official acts” while in office, throwing the case’s future into doubt. And even if the appeals court overturns Cannon’s ruling, there is no timeframe on when a new trial would take place, meaning that it would almost certainly come several months after the November elections. This raises the possibility that Trump could return to the White House with the case underway, and then would simply ask his new attorney general to drop the charges.  

Trump still faces federal charges for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election in connection with the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The Supreme Court’s ruling has also put that case in limbo, with a hearing to determine the next steps postponed until September. The former president also faces criminal charges in Georgia for attempting to overturn the state’s presidential election results, but that case is stalled over attempts by Trump’s legal team to have its prosecutor, Fani Willis, thrown off of the case.  

Right now, the only criminal case against Trump to proceed to a trial verdict is his hush-money case in New York, where the Republican presidential nominee was convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. If Smith has his way, Trump may one day face a criminal trial again.  

Hundreds of staffers that served under President George W. Bush, Arizona Senator John McCain, and Utah Senator Mitt Romney jointly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, writing that another presidency under Donald Trump would be “untenable.”

“Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected,” the group wrote in a letter. “The alternative, however, is simply untenable. At home, another four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic leadership, this time focused on advancing the dangerous goals of Project 2025, will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.”

“Abroad, democratic movements will be irreparably jeopardized as Trump and his acolyte JD Vance kowtow to dictators like Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies,” the letter continued. “We can’t let that happen.”

The letter received 238 signatures in all—significantly more than endorsed the 2020 edition of this letter, in which 150 former Republican staffers announced their intention to vote for President Joe Biden.

Some of the signees include former McCain chiefs of staff Mark Salter and Chris Koch, former McCain legislative director Joe Donoghue, McCain’s 2008 press secretary Jennifer Lux, and George H.W. Bush chief of staff Jean Becker.

The endorsement underscores how divided traditional Republicans feel from other conservatives as Trump, Project 2025, and increasingly extreme factions of the right tighten their grip on the future of the party. Some of that tension has actually been stoked by Trump himself: While running for president in 2015, Trump—who famously avoided the Vietnam War draft with a timely diagnosis of bone spurs—mocked McCain for being taken prisoner while serving in Vietnam, declaring that the 2008 Republican presidential nominee was “not a war hero” and that he “like[s] people that weren’t captured.”

But Trump’s anti-military rhetoric isn’t just in the past. Instead, it’s been a point of contention for the MAGA candidate even in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Trump came under fire for arguing that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to one of his billionaire donors was “much better” than the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor. That comment rubbed veterans the wrong way, who connected Trump’s disrespectful rhetoric to a 2020 Atlantic report that caught the former president repeatedly referring to fallen soldiers as “suckers and losers.”

Donald Trump, unsurprisingly, thinks Robert F. Kennedy’s endorsement of him is a “big” deal.

“He’s a great guy, respected by everybody,” a low-energy Trump said on Friday after Kennedy announced he was suspending his campaign.

Fact check: RFK Jr. is not respected by everybody. Even his own extended family regularly pillories him in the press.

Over the weekend, Trump reposted pro-Kennedy messages on Truth Social, including one referring to Kennedy and Trump as an “anti-establishment ticket.” Maybe J.D. Vance really is in danger of losing his job.

It’s been quite the journey for Kennedy. He entered the 2024 race as a Democrat, switched to independent, and then allegedly begged Kamala Harris for a spot in her administration. Her campaign ignored him.

But Trump, desperate for any kind of advantage against Harris, has welcomed Kennedy with open arms. This, despite the fact that Kennedy allegedly said earlier this summer that Trump was “a terrible human being. The worse [sic] president ever and barely human. He is probably a sociopath.”

On Sunday, Kennedy claimed that he will pave the way for more Democrats to jump ship to the Republicans, saying in a Fox News interview that the Trump campaign will soon make a “series of announcements about other Democrats who are joining his 2024 campaign.”

Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp—has just hired Dustin Carmack, a former adviser to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s doomed presidential campaign and an ex–Project 2025 employee.

Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic instructor and attorney Alejandra Caraballo revealed the news on X (formerly Twitter) Monday afternoon, providing screenshots from Carmack’s LinkedIn profile, which he has since deactivated.

Caraballo pointed out that Meta’s hire was likely made to deflect criticism from conservatives—but it’s also meant to augment the firm’s interactions with state governments, as the company has “political positions to limit regulation and buy influence.”

But the move comes amid a period in which Meta’s treatment of users—specifically the type of user who runs afoul of much of what Project 2025 wants to do to the United States—has been called into question. In recent months, the LGBTQ+ rights group GLAAD has criticized Meta’s content moderation policies on its platforms, saying that they were effectively encouraging an “epidemic of anti-transgender hate” on their social media sites. The report showed a significant increase in anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ posts on Meta’s sites, noting that transgender people were routinely called “sexual predators,” “perverts,” and “groomers” in many of those posts.

The Project 2025 manifesto, a conservative playbook for a future Republican presidential administration, has been criticized and derided by Democrats for many of the regressive policies it envisions, especially for those that would dramatically curtail LGBTQ+ and abortion rights. One passage states flat out that “Children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries.”

Carmack’s arrival at Meta also coincides with the company’s restrictions on “political content” on Instagram and Threads instituted earlier this year, which limit the reach of accounts that post about politics and social issues. The move sparked protests from journalists, activists, and even meme creators, among others, for discouraging posts about LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and other major social issues, particularly in a presidential election year.

Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have tried in vain to distance themselves from Project 2025; it’s proven to be a daunting task due to their extensive ties to the manifesto and the people who sired it into existence. Vance even wrote the foreword to a new book written by Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts. Meta will likely try to deflect any associations with the far-right policy wishlist soon enough, although that may be in vain considering Carmack’s role at Meta will be to reassure right-wing conservatives that their social media platforms are an asset to the cause.

Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp may actually be preparing to take action against three members of the state election board who have been at the center of claims of ethics violations.

Kemp responded Monday to an ethics complaint filed by Democratic state Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes alleging that Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston, and Janelle King, who have been touted by Donald Trump as “pitbulls” for “victory,” broke rules to impose last-minute changes to Georgia’s election procedures.

The accusations stem from a July 12 meeting where the trio passed two new election rules, but failed to provide adequate notice about the meeting to the public or the two Democratic board members—a possible violation of the Open Meetings Act. The first rule required county election boards to post daily ballot counts online, and the second increased the number of partisan monitors during the vote-counting process. After the group approved the new rules, they were cheered on by one of Trump’s election-denying allies.

Earlier this month, the Georgia State Election Board voted 3–2 in favor of yet another new rule, which required a “reasonable inquiry” into any discrepancy between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters, before certifying election results. This would make it significantly easier for county election officials to delay or refuse certification of election results in populous areas such as Fulton or DeKalb counties in November.

Last week, Islam Parkes filed a complaint with the state, alleging the group had violated the state ethics code in addition to the Open Meetings Act. “The election board is supposed to certify election results and so passing illegal rules to undermine the integrity of our elections is extremely concerning,” Islam Parkes told local outlet Fox 5. She said that the trio should be removed from the board immediately.

In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday, Kemp’s office said they were looking into the complaints against the trio.

“This office has received Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes and other’s letters alleging ethics violations by members of the State Elections Board. Due to uncertainty regarding whether this office has authority to act under Code 45-10-4 in response to these complaints, we have sought the Attorney General’s advice regarding the application of statute to the letters,” the statement said. “We will respond following receipt of the advice and further evaluation of the letters.”

Kemp’s office’s statement signals a positive direction for the Republican governor, who may take action to undo the trio’s handiwork or even unseat them. But it’s unclear just how concerned Kemp is about the threat the group poses, given the fact that he formally endorsed Trump just last week, even after Trump has made several digs at Kemp over the last month for refusing to overturn Georgia’s election results in 2020.

“We gotta win from the top of the ticket on down,” Kemp said. “I’ve been saying consistently for a long time we cannot afford another four years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and I think Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are to be even worse. So we need to send Donald Trump back to the White House.”

A group of Georgia officials gathered at the state capitol Monday, urging Kemp to take action. Representative Lucy McBath called on Kemp to “hold the State Elections Board accountable,” and called the state’s election board “an equal co-conspirator in the effort to suppress our votes.”

Before Islam Parkes filed her complaint, the former chair of the Fulton County Board of Elections also filed a similar ethics complaint earlier this month. In July, government ethics watchdog American Oversight filed a lawsuit against the board, accusing the trio of violating Georgia’s Open Meetings Act.

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger has also criticized the last-minute rule changes. “Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” he said earlier this month.

Raffensperger refused to help overturn his state’s 2020 election results, and he has held firm against Trump ever since. Raffensperger has yet to endorse anyone in the 2024 presidential election.

Since 2020, Georgia has had the highest number of certification refusals of anywhere in the country—and remains the likely epicenter for Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2024. A report from American Doom found that at least 22 people who’d pushed election-denying conspiracy theories were employed as election officials in Georgia—including two on its board of elections.