Donald Trump won a major legal victory yesterday when a US federal judge dismissed one of the criminal prosecutions against him, as he prepared to accept the Republican Party’s presidential nomination just days after surviving an assassination attempt.
A judge in Florida appointed to the bench by Trump dismissed the case that accused the former president of illegally holding on to classified documents after leaving office, ruling that the prosecutor handling the case was unlawfully appointed to his role.
The news comes at outset of the 2024 Republican convention in Milwaukee, where Trump announced senator from Ohio J D Vance as his vice presidential pick and is due on Thursday to formally accept the party’s nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 election.
Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, are locked in what opinion polls show to be a tight election rematch. Trump continues to claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has not committed to accepting the results of the election were he to lose.
The race was upended on Saturday when Trump was shot in the ear at a rally in Pennsylvania by a 20-year-old gunman whose motive remains unknown.
In the wake of his near-death experience, Trump said he is revising his acceptance speech to emphasise national unity, rather than highlight his differences with Biden.
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner.
Trump said that following the judge’s decision dismissing the documents case, his other outstanding prosecutions should also be thrown out. He is still awaiting trial on two cases for his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
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