After divine providence, justice? “Only God has prevented the unthinkable” Donald Trump announced this weekend after miraculously surviving an assassination attempt. This Monday, July 15, it will be the turn of federal judge Eileen Cannon, whose inexperience and bias have been repeatedly pointed out, to play guardian angel. Appointed by Trump in late 2020 and tasked with leading the case against him for withholding classified documents after he left the White House, he decided to scrap the entire process in favor of the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith. Illegally prosecuting the case.

The drastic decision, which is subject to appeal by the US Justice Department, gives the former president a thunderous victory on the day the Republican convention begins, the day he is supposed to formalize his candidacy for the presidential election in November. A breath of fresh air before being bogged down by Judge Cannon’s belated tactics and incomprehensible decisions, the secret archive matter has long been considered the most dangerous of the (many) legal threats he faces as a former president. facing with

In this case, two weeks after Donald Trump’s ignominious exit from the White House on January 20, 2021, two weeks after his supporters stormed the Capitol, the facts of the former president’s direct and apparent responsibility for two of his personal aides were actually easier to prove. The investigation and searches conducted by the FBI at the Mar-a-Lago residence in the summer of 2022 made it possible to discover more than one hundred classified documents, in particular. Storage rooms, a ballroom and even toilets. It violates several laws, including the management of presidential archives and laws related to espionage, which prohibit the keeping of state secrets in unauthorized and secure locations. Donald Trump, accused of trying to destroy evidence, was the target of about forty charges in the case and was sentenced to ten years in prison, the most severe.

Judiciary is weaker than ever

Rarely mentioned, without commenting on the merits of the case At its 93-page long conclusionJudge Eileen Cannon, 43, ruled in November 2022 in favor of Donald Trump and the funding of his work, which challenged the constitutional authority of special prosecutor Jack Smith, appointed by the Minister of Justice. “The Court believes that Special Counsel Smith’s prosecution of this matter violates two pillars of the Constitution: the role of Congress in appointing officers and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures.” The judge writes. In the past, including recent ones, several federal judges have rejected arguments similar to those made by Trump’s lawyers about the legitimacy of special prosecutors, whose tradition dates back to the 1870s.

But this is one of the lasting effects of Donald Trump’s first term in office, during which he appointed hundreds of judges at all levels of the federal system: The judiciary in America never seemed to weaken. In particular, the increasingly politicized Supreme Court is home to three Trump-appointed justices. Two years after repealing the federal right to abortion, it significantly reduced the regulatory power of federal agencies and authorized broad criminal immunity for the President of the United States. The unprecedented decision, released on July 1, sent back to a trial court another major federal case threatening a former president over efforts to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Following Monday’s decision, Donald Trump called for all legal action against him to be dropped: “As we move forward to unite our nation after the horrific events of Saturday, reversing the illegal charge in Florida must be the first step, followed by a swift reversal of all witch hunts.” The Republican presidential candidate later listed the lawsuits filed against him on his Truth Community site. If he wins against Joe Biden on November 5, Donald Trump could order the outright dropping of all federal proceedings against him once he takes office in January 2025. Proceedings still ongoing in New York state and Georgia, another case related to an attempt to spoil the outcome of the 2020 election, will be suspended for the duration of his mandate.

Updated at 6:50 p.m. with context elements.