A longstanding legal battle has been brought up again, the alleged rigging of the 2020 Presidential Elections and Trump’s classified documents case. On Aug. 1, 2024 Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the federal appeals court to reopen Donald Trump’s classified documents case. New information regarding the lawsuit has been discovered and used to further the court proceedings.
At first, when Smith brought the issue to the court asking for the case to be reinstated, it was dismissed by the appointed judge. Smith was able to argue that his dismissal was against various long-standing Department of Justice rules. Multiple charges were brought against Trump due to his illegal possession of classified documents after his term.
“When the elections happened back in 2020 and word got around about Trump keeping documents and the rigging of the elections… I felt it was really weird that a previous president would do that. I feel those papers could have meant a lot for this country, and we would not have even known it. Is it really worth putting someone like that back in office? I feel like if he stole that from us, what more could he steal,” junior Maria Canizales said.
He had documents regarding nuclear weaponry in the United States, nuclear capabilities of foreign countries, and documents U.S. about military capabilities. When confronted, Trump did not give the documents back and hid them. This illegal action later resulted in an indictment.
“I don’t even know what he would want to keep them for, but I feel like going through all the trouble of taking them and hiding them and being so sneaky about it, then also not wanting to give them back just makes me feel that much more unsafe about it,” junior Rafael Hannono said.
The case has been delayed by Trump’s appointed judge in various forms. The case is just one of four state and federal persecutions against Trump and includes 40 felony counts, one claiming that Trump refused to return classified documents and got in the way when the government tried to take them back.
“I don’t even know much about politics, but with all the allegations Trump has, including this one and so many laws he has supposedly broken, I just feel like he’s always slipping through the cracks because he is someone with power,” junior Mariana Iglesias said.
Trump’s lawyers have found that Smith was appointed to the 2020 Trump cases by Attorney General Garland but had not been selected by the president or gone through the senate selection process. The Justice department has been creating special counsels like the one Smith was appointed to but usually with Senate involvement. Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that all special counsels appointed from outside of the Justice Department were not properly appointed and that congress had overlooked procedural errors. Cannon argued less about the wrong doings of Trump, who was the one who had previously appointed her, but more on the way Smith was wrongfully put on special counsel.
” I feel like it wouldn’t have been as bad if he just gave the documents back after he was asked, but him choosing to hide them and get help for it just shows a lot about the way he is as a person,” junior Misha Cardenas said.
Whether the unsettled case could affect the new elections is unclear, as the information will likely be delayed until after November. As of yet, Trump’s loyal supporters will vote him regardless of his prosecutions.
