A report by Special Counsel Jack Smith released Tuesday detailed the prosecutor’s rationale behind the election interference prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump. Released nearly two months after Trump’s federal charges were dropped, Smith’s report explained various decisions made during the prosecution effort and detailed its trajectory before ending due to Trump’s 2024 election victory. Smith [...]
New York Judge Juan Merchan gave US president-elect Donald Trump an “unconditional discharge” during a sentencing hearing Friday, formally convicting the president-elect on 34 felony counts of falsified business records without further penalties such as prison time or fines. Reporter Adam Klasfeld relayed that Merchan deemed the unconditional discharge the “only lawful sentence” in this [...]
The US Supreme Court refused to halt president-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money criminal case by a 5-4 vote Thursday. The court reasoned that the likely sentence of an “unconditional discharge” would not hamper Trump’s transition to the presidency and that evidentiary issues raised by Trump’s lawyers could be resolved through regular appeals. A [...]
South Korea’s public prosecution ended their attempt to arrest President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday after being impeded by the Presidential Security Service, according to national media outlet Yonhap, with the ex-president’s security service announcing that it would not allow the arrest to proceed. Newspaper Hankook Ilbo reported that prosecutors plan to pursue abuse of [...]
The Georgia Court of Appeals removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the election interference case against president-elect Donald Trump and 18 others on Thursday over Willis’ previously undisclosed relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. The appeals court agreed with the trial court that the relationship created an “appearance of impropriety,” and found that [...]
Special prosecutor Jack Smith dropped two criminal cases against US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, including his 2020 election interference case and an appeal in his classified documents case, which had been dismissed in July. According to Smith’s court filing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) determined it would be unconstitutional to prosecute Trump because of [...]
William Hibbitts is JURIST’s Deputy Editorial Director, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He filed this dispatch from Halifax. The atmosphere in Halifax was marked by contrasts Saturday. On the one hand, Canada’s largest east coast city and longtime Atlantic naval base was yet again hosting the Halifax International Security Forum, an annual conference attended [...]
New York Judge Juan Merchan indefinitely postponed president-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money case Friday following a joint motion from prosecutors and Trump’s defense team. Sentencing was scheduled for November 26, after the US presidential election, but Trump’s victory has thrown the four criminal cases against him into uncharted territory. Merchan’s order also allowed [...]
US president-elect Donald Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to head the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Thursday, hours after controversial former congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination to the post. Bondi previously joined President Trump’s defense in his 2019 impeachment trial. Announcing his new pick, Trump touted Bondi as being “very tough [...]
Former US President Donald Trump is safe after US Secret Service agents shot at a man pointing an AK-47-style rifle through a fence while the ex-president was golfing at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, authorities confirmed during a press conference Sunday. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said that his office received a [...]
