Judge Cannon Slammed for “Erratic” and “Dangerous” Behavior

Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to toss out Donald Trump’s classified documents case by ruling special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment unconstitutional flies in the face of legal precedent, and the law itself, according to a former federal solicitor.

Neal Katyal, who while serving as acting solicitor general helped draft the Department of Justice’s regulations for installing special counsels, challenged the Trump-appointed judge’s ruling in a New York Times op-ed Tuesday. He slammed Cannon’s claim that no congressional law authorized the special counsel’s appointment as “palpably false.”

Cannon’s decision “is legally unsupported, ignores decades of precedent and is deeply dangerous,” Katyal said, describing her actions as “highly erratic.”

Katyal argued that the regulations on special counsel appointments were drafted under specific congressional laws. In particular, Katyal referred to U.S. Code 28 Section 515, which grants the attorney general, in this case Merrick Garland, the power to commission attorneys “specially retained under authority of the Department of Justice” as “special assistant[s] to the attorney general or special attorney[s].”

The same law also states that those attorneys can then “conduct any kind of legal proceeding, civil or criminal,” that other U.S. attorneys are “authorized by law to conduct,” and Section 533 permits the attorney general to commission officials “to detect and prosecute crimes against the United States.”

“These sections were specifically cited when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr. Smith as a special counsel. If Congress doesn’t like these laws, it can repeal them. But until then, the law is the law,” wrote Katyal.

Katyal wrote that when he proposed new regulations on appointing special counsels to Capitol Hill in 1999, not a single lawmaker challenged the legality of the new rules. Regulation 28 CFR 600 would come to replace the expired Independent Counsel Act with the Office of Special Counsel.

In her ruling, Cannon referred to the expired Independent Counsel Act as the basis for her decision, claiming that the Department of Justice had appointed Smith under the since-defunct provision.

Katyal also said that Cannon’s ruling went against the Supreme Court precedent set in United States v. Nixon, which affirmed the process of appointing the special counsel under both Section 515 and 533.

“Congress has vested in the Attorney General the power to conduct the criminal litigation of the United States Government,” wrote Justice Warren Earl Burger in the majority opinion. “It has also vested in him the power to appoint subordinate officers to assist him in the discharge of his duties.

“Acting pursuant to those statutes, the Attorney General has delegated the authority to represent the United States in these particular matters to a Special Prosecutor with unique authority and tenure,” Burger wrote.

According to Katyal, Cannon attempted to dismiss this ruling as “dicta” because she deemed it irrelevant to the holding of the case. She did, however, manage to cite Justice Clarence Thomas’s solo concurrence in Trump’s immunity case several times. Thomas had suggested in one line that “if there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution.”

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was found guilty on all counts Tuesday in a sprawling, nine-week trial that charged the 70-year-old Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman for accepting envelopes of cash and gold bars as bribes while acting as a middle man between local real estate moguls and foreign governments.

The New Jersey Democrat and his wife were accused last year of acting as foreign agents for Egypt, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of flashy gifts in exchange for Menendez’s “power and influence to protect and enrich” the businessmen and government of Egypt.

In a superseding indictment filed in January, Menendez was also accused of other corruption-related charges, including allegedly taking bribes from Qatar in an attempt to help a New Jersey real estate developer secure a multimillion-dollar investment from a company tied to the Middle Eastern country and collecting lavish gifts in exchange for his handiwork.

Evidence in the trial included a set of gold bars stamped with the name “Menendez,” with serial numbers matching those reportedly owned by one of the senator’s alleged bribers, New Jersey real estate tycoon Fred Daibes.

Menendez had appeared hopeful Monday before the verdict was delivered.

“It’s obvious that the government’s case is not as simple as they made it to be,” Menendez told the Associated Press from outside the courthouse. “It’s not as simple as they made it to be. The jury’s finding that out.”

Menendez had refused to resign from the race for his Senate seat, but left the door open to run for reelection as an independent candidate. Tuesday’s verdict potentially pulls the plug on any future chances Menendez has at winning reelection in November.

But the convicted lawmaker’s opponents weren’t celebrating the news.

“This is a sad and somber day for New Jersey and our country,” wrote Representative Andy Kim, the Democratic candidate running for Menendez’s seat, in a statement. “Our public servants should work for the people, and today we saw the people judge Senator Menendez as guilty and unfit to serve.

“I called on Senator Menendez to step down when these charges were first made public, and now that he has been found guilty, I believe the only course of action for him is to resign his seat immediately,” Kim continued. “The people of New Jersey deserve better.”

This story has been updated.

Shortly after the attempted assassination on Donald Trump, creepy tech bros and Tucker Carlson campaigned for J.D. Vance to be Trump’s pick for vice president.

According to Axios, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and billionaires Elon Musk and David Sacks all began a “secret lobbying campaign,” which involved calling Trump to secure Vance’s position as next in line in case there was another attack on Trump’s life.

Carlson told Axios he backed Vance because he was the only top contender that “doesn’t secretly hate Trump, as all the rest of them do. He fundamentally agrees with Trump.” Carlson also noted that the two shared the same values on cutting aid for Ukraine. According to The New York Times, Carlson dissuaded Trump from considering Marco Rubio or other “neocons” aligned with the Fox News ecosystem.

Perhaps the secret lobbying campaign by tech billionaires isn’t a huge surprise. Three years ago, Trump met with Vance for the first time, as he was shepherded by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Despite Vance’s working-class facade, he is a former venture capitalist with strong relationships to those in Silicon Valley. According to Trump-world insiders, Vance’s tech and finance-world connections could also open up doors for GOP fundraising, sweetening the deal.

It seems like that promise is already coming true as the tech bros and crypto-fascists are lining up behind the Trump-Vance ticket. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk plans to donate $45 million per month to the pro-Trump America PAC, and right-wing tech-moguls Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz are pledging to donate as well.

With Trump’s pick of Vance, the growing reactionary tech movement may have secured a seat at the table.

Conservatives seemingly had no problem tapping someone with a history of covering up sexual abuse scandals to deliver the opening remarks at the Republican National Convention.

During the opening prayer Monday night, Archbishop of Milwaukee Jerome Listecki reminded the conference to pray for the “wisdom” to place the nation “above personal interest” and to “respect justice” and “equality before the law.” But that wasn’t always the spiritual leader’s prerogative.

Fourteen years ago, Listecki was caught in the midst of a cover-up within the church, with local outlets underlining how far he had gone to thwart investigations of priests involved in the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandal, and how he had even permitted some of the accused—and charged—church leaders to remain in leadership positions.

In 2010, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Listecki claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to conduct a church investigation into a La Crosse-area priest who had reportedly been following little boys into water park restrooms—though there was apparently plenty of evidence to criminally investigate that priest, as he was later charged with possession of child pornography.

That same year, Listecki reportedly allowed two retired clergy members who had played prominent roles in the national sex abuse cover-up—Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee and Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati—to lead local liturgies.

When pressed by the Wisconsin Radio Network on why he permitted the members’ continued involvement in the church, Listecki said that Weakland, who had admitted to concealing the rape and molestation of children, should still be celebrated despite being a “lightning rod” within the religious institution.

“Having said that, you know you do talk to some people who talk about some of the good things that he has done,” Listecki told the radio news outlet. “Now, certainly, those good things, a pall is cast upon them because of the direction and leadership he’s given in this area.”

Also in 2010, Listecki took the cover-up a step further, opposing legislation that would have lifted the statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes. He alleged that doing so would bankrupt the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

“This bill will have the effect of doing something that everyone will go out of their way to tell you they don’t want it to do—that is, targeting the Catholic Church,” Listecki said at a public hearing before the state Senate Judiciary Committee that year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A top official with Project 2025 has jumped in on Donald Trump’s effort to look like he’s not at all affiliated with the fascistic blueprint for his potential second term in the White House. Too bad for them, they already said the exact opposite.

Last week, Donald Trump tried desperately to distance himself from Project 2025 after a particularly bloodthirsty comment from Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind the plan. Now it seems that the project is taking its lead from Trump. But it’s less than convincing.

Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, worked overtime Monday to distance his brainchild from the former president it was designed for.

“What Democrats [have] said about Project 2025 is probably the greatest misinformation campaign since, I don’t know, the Russia hoax,” Dans said, claiming that Democrats “move from hoax to hoax,” according to Rolling Stone.

“Somehow that whole squad put all the marbles in vilifying Project 2025, and then making this fake attachment to President Trump,” he said. Dans previously served in the Trump administration as the chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

The so-called “fake attachment” to Trump that Dans is complaining about must’ve at one point seemed real to him, as Dans previously touted the project’s connection to the former president during a radio interview.

On a May 2023 episode of the We the People Convention podcast, Dans boasted about having “great relationships” with Trump and other Republicans, according to Media Matters. Dans explained that Project 2025 focused on a presidential transition team, adding, “So ultimately, yes. I think, you know, President Trump’s very bought in with this.”

While at the time, Dans described the project as being “candidate neutral,” just last month he also called Project 2025 an “instruction manual” for a second Trump presidency. In May, he said he thought Trump would likely “adopt” many of the ideas in the lengthy mandate, which explains how to replace the administrative state with Trump loyalists, among other things.

Trump’s hopes of distancing himself from the plan is about to get a whole lot harder, with the announcement that he’s tapped Ohio Senator J.D. Vance to be his running mate. Not only does Vance have Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation, fawning over him, he’s also said that Project 2025 has “some good ideas in there.” It makes sense, because Vance pitched the same purge of civil servants in 2022, arguing that Trump should defy the law, if necessary, to “deconstruct the administrative state.”

Elon Musk plans to donate $45 million per month to the nascent pro-Trump America PAC, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The super PAC, formed in May, has already received millions in donations from tech giants and Musk orbiters using their fortunes to influence the democratic process in Trump’s favor in 2024. The Wall Street Journal reported that the PAC “had $8.75 million in contributions for the three-month period ending on June 30,” including from former Tesla board member Antonio Gracias, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.

While Musk had not donated to America PAC as of June, he intends to begin the monthly donations in July, according to those familiar with the matter.

In March, Musk wrote on X, “I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.” But Musk’s political beliefs have taken a yearslong turn toward right-wing extremism, and in recent months, he has reportedly grown closer to Trump. Last week, he endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt against him and excoriated The New York Times for daring to run an op-ed critical of the presidential candidate after the shooting.

Musk has denied The Wall Street Journal’s reporting, posting a meme on X deeming the story fake news. Shortly after, however, he responded in the affirmative to a tweet saying, “Elon Musk went from being an Obama voter to pledging $180 million to elect DJT. The woke left really f*cked up. Badly.”

The details of the reporting on Musk and America PAC offer dizzying reminders of the vast power the superwealthy wield in our system of government—and how a party making increasing strides to appear populist of late happily benefits from these elites’ influence. Stressing the dire need for campaign finance reform, Senator Bernie Sanders responded to the story on X, writing, “This is oligarchy: a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires.”

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien praised Donald Trump as an ally for the working class and “one tough SOB,” in a strange speech at the Republican National Convention Monday.

The president of America’s largest and most diverse union  became the first Teamster in its 121-year history to address the RNC—and used that opportunity to elevate the former president.

“I think we all can agree, whether people like him or they don’t like him, in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough SOB,” said the Teamster president, speaking about the assassination attempt on Trump.

O’Brien’s choice to speak at the convention and praise Trump sets him apart from other labor leaders. Nearly all major labor unions have endorsed Joe Biden for the 2024 election, with the AFL-CIO endorsing Biden 17 months before the general election. O’Brien acknowledged the controversy he is stirring in the union movement saying, “I don’t care about getting criticized.”

“I refuse to keep doing the same things my predecessors did,” O’Brien said in a speech that criticized both parties. “Today the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party. We will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition ready to accomplish something real for the American worker.”

Trump, of course, has worked against workers’ interests at every turn—molding the National Labor Relations Board in his image, vetoing the Protect Right to Organizing Act, and restricting overtime pay, wage increases, and health and safety protections. Compare that to Biden, who in 2022 signed the Butch Lewis Act, saving the pensions of nearly 350,000 of O’Brien’s Teamsters membership.

Teamsters’ vice president at large, John Palmer, told Mother Jones last week that members are split when it comes to the 2024 election, with straw polls showing 46 percent supporting Biden and around 37 percent supporting Trump. Palmer has also openly criticized O’Brien’s budding relationship with Trump, writing that speaking at the RNC “only normalizes and makes the most anti-union party and President I’ve seen in my lifetime seem palatable.”

A segment of a phone call between independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump was leaked on social media early Tuesday, revealing just how much the two men support each other, despite Kennedy’s repeated insistence that he wants to offer voters a different option.

In one section, Trump can be heard tying vaccines to autism.

“When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a … you know, 10-pound or 20-pound baby,” Trump said on the call. “And then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically. I’ve seen it too many times. And then you hear that it doesn’t have an impact, right? But you and I talked about that a long time ago.”

Trump appeared to suggest to Kennedy that the two should combine their efforts in some way, telling Kennedy that doing so would be “so good” and “so big” for the independent candidate. At one point, Trump said, “We’re gonna win.”

“Yeah,” Kennedy agreed.

Trump can also be heard describing the moment he was struck by a bullet on Friday at his Pennsylvania rally.

“I just turned my head to show the chart,” Trump said on the call. “And something rapped me. It felt like a giant … like the world’s largest mosquito. And it was. It was a bullet going around. You know, what do they call that, an AR-15 or something? That was a big gun. That was a pretty tough gun, right?”

In a since-deleted post, the apparent originator of the leak—Kennedy’s son, Bobby Kennedy III—wrote that “these sorts of conversations should be had in public.”

“Here’s Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids—this was the day after the assassination attempt,” the younger Kennedy wrote. “This is not a cheapfake or somebody doing a Trump voice. This is the real deal.”

Kennedy’s campaign has since come out and apologized for the leak, claiming that he had erred by failing to stop a “videographer” from filming him after Trump rang.

“I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately,” Kennedy wrote on X (formerly Twitter.) “I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”

Watch the full clip of the call below:

A Fox News analyst said people would question why exactly Donald Trump had picked J.D. Vance as his running mate, considering his lack of experience and former status as a Never Trump Republican. 

Vance has talked his fair share of smack about the former president, saying Trump could be “America’s Hitler,” accused him of committing serial sexual assault, and calling him “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs.” But as Trump has amassed more power in the run-up to November, it seems that Vance has finally changed his tune. To many, though, it’s unclear why Trump would want to work with Vance at all. 

Brit Hume, a chief political analyst for Fox, said Monday night that many voters would be asking that question, and offered up a possible theory for Trump’s choice. 

“Some people may look at this and remember what J.D. Vance used to say about Donald Trump,” said Hume. “He was a hard-core Never Trumper not very many years ago, and he reversed himself completely not that long ago.

“And one of the things you worry about is, when somebody’s making a pick for a potential president—potential president if something happens to him—then you think, well, is this person; how did he get the job?

“Did he get it because he was really the best qualified to be president? Or did he get it because he sucked up effectively to the nominee?” said Hume. “People will have questions about that.”

Although Vance reportedly divided Trump’s donors, he was the “little pet” of one of Trump’s campaign managers, Susie Wiles, according to one anonymous GOP strategist. He  also had a number of powerful backers in Trump’s inner circle, including Trump’s sons, Don Jr. and Eric, as well as Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk. 

A top Republican is blaming his divisive, hate-fueled speech at the Republican National Convention on a teleprompter loading error.

Senator Ron Johnson told PBS NewsHour Monday night that he had intended to hop on the “unity convention” bandwagon in the aftermath of the attempted assassination on Donald Trump’s life. But instead, he read a version of the script that was practically the opposite, allegedly because of a teleprompter mishap.

“That speech was written last week. They literally loaded the wrong speech,” Johnson told the news outlet.

“I had taken that out. Instead I’d loaded about that we needed a somber moment in history. We should heed President Trump’s call to unite,” he said. “We must heal and unify this nation. I didn’t know how to take that out without screwing up the teleprompter.”

But those statements being there in error apparently didn’t stop Johnson from saying them anyway. In a four-minute speech on Monday, Johnson told the crowd of conservatives that Democratic policies pose “a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values, and our people.”

He further derided Democrats as the party of “open borders, reckless spending, weaponized government, and weakness on the world stage,” and promised that Republicans would repair “the damage done by Democrats” once again.

“Vice President Harris and President Biden,” Johnson said, “have made our lives less safe and more expensive.”

The solution to all this, according to Johnson, was another four years of Trump. In closing out his speech, Johnson referred back to Trump’s slogan: “Make America Great Again.”

Johnson’s aides reportedly washed their hands of the incident, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that if anyone was going to take the fall for the teleprompter loading error, it would be “not us.”