On the Docket: Trump gets the felon treatment
Donald Trump notched a minor win in his federal classified-documents case – but is already seeing the ramifications of having a felony conviction.
On Monday, US district judge Aileen Cannon struck a paragraph describing Trump waving around a classified document at his Bedminster club in New Jersey from the federal indictment. The line would be unfairly prejudicial if a jury later saw it at trial, Cannon wrote in a 14-page order that also rejected Trump’s motion to dismiss the obstruction-of-justice charges.
Cannon’s ruling, that Trump had not been charged with the conduct described, is unlikely to further derail the classified documents case, legal experts say.
But the striking of the offending paragraph is notable, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell writes, because it could indicate how Cannon will rule on future motions as Trump attempts to limit the scope of the evidence prosecutors can introduce against him – and thereby dramatically undercut the case.
Critics accuse Cannon, a Trump appointee, of slow-walking the case with long delays between rulings and hearings on extraneous issues. Trial has been delayed indefinitely while the court addresses its apparent impediments. The next hearing, on a Trump motion to dismiss the case arguing that the special counsel was appointed and funded unlawfully, is set for 21 June.
Meanwhile, the things that happen to felons are starting to happen to Donald Trump.
Trump appeared by video conference with New York probation officials on Monday, a routine and required step before his expected sentencing hearing in July for the criminal hush-money conviction. Officials spent a half-hour asking Trump questions about his personal history, family obligations and criminal record in preparation for the probation office’s sentencing recommendations.
Trump’s conviction may have also rendered him ineligible to hold a liquor license in New Jersey. State law bars liquor licenses for anyone convicted of a crime “involving moral turpitude”. The office of New Jersey attorney general Matt Plakin is looking into whether the former president’s recent convictions make him ineligible to hold liquor licenses at his three New Jersey golf courses, according to a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.
The conviction also means Trump’s gun permit in New York will be revoked. The New York police department suspended Trump’s concealed-carry permit last year after he was indicted, and collected two of the three guns he was allowed to carry; Trump lawfully moved the third gun to Florida.
Much has been made about how Trump can run for president with a felony conviction even though states commonly disenfranchise voters after a felony conviction. But Florida law does not recognize an out-of-state felony conviction as a reason to strip a citizen of voting rights. And Trump would only lose his voting rights in New York during a period of incarceration, which is highly unlikely in this case. Even if he were imprisoned, precedent exists for a campaign from a cell: Eugene V Debs ran for president in 1920 as a socialist while incarcerated.
Sidebar: Trump winding up for more shots at the judge
Trump plainly doesn’t want to go to jail. But if that happens, he is going to unload on Judge Juan Merchan, sources familiar with the matter told the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell. Merchan will be sentencing Trump after a jury convicted him on 34 felony counts in New York in May.
Trump is likely to double down on his attacks against Merchan if the sentence requires imprisonment, directing his supporters at rallies and in Truth Social posts to take up their grievances with the judge, one of the sources added. Other judges overseeing trials of Trump, his family and his co-defendants in other cases have received threats.
In other news
• The Georgia case against Trump and other defendants has been stayed pending the outcome of an appeal to permanently halt the case or, barring that, to remove the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, as the prosecutor. The Georgia court of appeals agreed to take up the case last week.
• Rudy Giuliani’s smiling mugshot began circulating Monday after he was booked for the fake-electors case pending against him in Arizona. Giuliani told waiting reporters that he had no regrets over his actions that led to the criminal charges. “I’m very, very proud of it,” said Trump’s former attorney, once the lauded mayor of New York City. An Arizona grand jury indicted Giuliani and 16 others in May, accusing him of conspiracy, fraud and forgery while pressuring Arizona legislators and the Maricopa county board of supervisors to change the result of the state’s presidential election, and with encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump. Giuliani also faces election interference and racketeering charges in Georgia. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
