Trump assassination attempt live updates: Judge dismisses classified documents case as RNC begins

Francoise Demonique, from Detroit, arrived in Milwaukee at 3:00 a.m. to set up a mobile merchandise stand that sells unofficial candidate T-shirts emblazoned with the faces of Trump and Biden.

Each shirt features a “positive” biographical story of one of the candidates.

Demonique was sporting the Trump shirt Monday, saying, “Today I’m wearing red, I’m giving respect” — but promised to wear the blue Biden shirt at the DNC in Chicago next month.

He said the purpose of his small shirt company, Meet a Great American, is to boost positivity in a hyper-partisan environment. 

“We need democracy, not division. Trump or Biden, it doesn’t matter,” he said. 

“This is the most beautiful country in the world, we don’t need to fight,” he said. 

Trump began fundraising off of the classified documents case’s dismissal, just hours after the federal judge canned the case against him and days after his assassination attempt.

“THE DOJ’S DOCUMENTS CASE AGAINST ME WAS JUST DISMISSED!” a fundraising email sent out today reads. “Now it’s time for us to unite the country! We will reinvigorate our economy for ALL AMERICANS.

“We will secure our border. We will show PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH on the world stage. WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the ad continues, before soliciting donations.

Trump said in an interview yesterday he believes he narrowly avoided his own death.

“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post.

Trump spoke to the Post while en route to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention this week; the former president reportedly had a large white bandage on his right ear from the injury he sustained from the shooting.

Trump recalled turning his head slightly to the right to read a chart about undocumented immigrants during the rally — a split-second move he believes allowed him to dodge a shot that would have killed him.

Read the full story here.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee is launching a bipartisan investigation into Trump’s attempted assassination, Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., said.

The committee will look into “whether or not there were security breaches that we need to close,” Peters said, modeling the investigation after its bipartisan look at the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. As with its Jan. 6 probe, the committee is expected to release recommendations on security changes.

Peters said he spoke “at length” with Homeland Secretary Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday and has a briefing with the FBI today. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and ranking member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., were briefed by the FBI by phone this morning.

Less than two days after the assassination attempt on Trump, the former president called on the Secret Service to give independent presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. protection.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said he will encourage Senate candidates to exercise more caution with their language after the attempted assassination of Trump.

“It’s unfortunate that people are starting to point fingers and that’s the underlying problem that we have in our country right now is that people point fingers at each other with vitriol that can lead to violence,” he said. “Everybody needs to stand down, stand back, take a deep breath and urge the American people to come together as one people.”

He added that as the head of the Senate’s campaign arm, he would “make sure that we’re bringing down the vitriol and to be very careful of the language that you use, words do matter.”

Yossi Aharoni traveled to today’s Coalition to March on the RNC from Minneapolis. He says he came to draw attention to the fact that Trump is not the anti-war, isolationist candidate he sometimes paints himself to be.

He said he felt it was “certainly more than possible” that the assassination attempt on the former president could end up boosting his electoral prospects this fall because it could cast him sympathetically in the eyes of some voters.

Aharoni said he felt that possibility makes it even more important to protest against his policies. 

“I don’t think it changes who he is fundamentally or what he wants to do,” Aharoni said of the attack on Trump. 

Anne Smith, of Milwaukee, said she felt similarly.

“I mean, you can see it in so many examples of politicians who were targeted or an assassination attempt almost killed them, and they were able to use that public momentum from that act to win elections or stay in power,” Smith said.

Brad Sigal boarded a bus early this morning with some 100 other activists from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. They carried signs that read “Legalization for all!” and said a second Donald Trump presidential term would be devastating for immigrants.

“The first years were a catastrophe,” Sigal said. “And he’s promising to do worse this time.”

When asked about President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, Sigal shook his head and said he also plans to protest at the DNC.

“This is something that has continued in every administration,” he said. “We don’t care what party is it. We’re going to continue protesting.”

Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. soared more than 30% on the first trading day following the attempted assassination of the former president.

Trump is the company’s biggest shareholder, owning more than 114 million shares. The gain added hundreds of millions of dollars to the former president’s net worth. Trump cannot sell shares of the stock — whose ticker symbol “DJT” stands for Trump’s initials — before the end of September.

Trump Media is the parent company of the former president’s social media outlet, Truth Social.

MILWAUKEE — Former President Donald Trump is expected to reveal his choice for a running mate later today as the Republican National Convention opens here.

Bret Baier of Fox News reported that Trump confirmed those plans to him in a telephone interview.

“Yes, we’re going to get the VP today,” Baier said. “And he said there’s other things to come. I don’t know what that means.”

Read the full story here.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba said the dismissal of the Trump classified documents case marks the first step in restoring the rule of law, arguing the “unlawful appointment and funding” of special counsel Jack Smith “has been a critical factor of the sham” case.

“This dismissal marks the first step in ending the weaponization of our justice system, restoring the rule of law, and Making America Great Again,” she said in a statement.

Former Trump official Kash Patel similarly praised the dismissal of the classified documents case as a constitutional “victory” and accused the Justice Department of unlawfully bringing the case against the former president.

“This case exemplifies the degradation of our constitution by decades of DOJ malfeasance, layered incessantly atop another, to create judicial scripture rather than law,” Patel said in a statement.

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Biden has spoken with the FBI family liaison for Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was killed at the Trump rally Saturday, to make sure his relatives know that he is available to speak to them if a conversation would be “right for them,” according to a White House official.

The president has expressed his heartfelt condolences to the Comperatores and has said he is praying for them while respecting their privacy at this difficult time, the official added.

“He was a father. He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired and he lost his life, God love him,” Biden said Sunday afternoon, adding that he was also thinking of those who were injured.

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling in the classified documents case “breathtakingly misguided,” saying in a statement that her decision “flies in the face of long-accepted practice and repetitive judicial precedence. It is wrong on the law and must be appealed immediately.”

Schumer said the ruling “is further evidence that Judge Cannon cannot handle this case impartially and must be reassigned.”

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump argued that the dismissal of the “unlawful” classified documents case in Florida this morning should be the “first step” in dismissing the other legal battles he faces.

“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Trump wrote.

Trump repeated his claims, without evidence, that the Biden Justice Department is behind the “political attacks” against him, which he described as an “election interference” effort by the president.

“Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!” he wrote.

Although President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden was prosecuted by a special counsel that also did not get specific Senate confirmation for that role, Judge Cannon writes in her opinion that she sees a difference between the two special counsels.

“The appointment of private citizens like Mr. Smith — as opposed to already-retained federal employees — appears much closer to the exception than the rule,” she writes about special counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting Trump, and David Weiss, the U.S. attorney from Delaware who was appointed to be the special prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case.

Cannon goes on in her opinion to contrast Smith’s appointment with Weiss’, pointing out Weiss was already a U.S. attorney. However, the Biden case is not in her jurisdiction, so her ruling doesn’t have any power with regard to that case.

Today’s ruling by Judge Cannon comes weeks after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas raised constitutional questions about the special counsel.

In his concurring opinion in Trump v. U.S. (the presidential immunity case), Thomas questioned the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith, arguing that the president “cannot create offices at his pleasure” and that “if there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution.” (Trump’s lawyers had made this argument in the election interference case, but the Supreme Court didn’t agree to consider it.)

Thomas raised whether the special counsel’s nomination needed to be confirmed by the Senate. Cannon’s ruling appears similar, and Thomas’ concurrence is cited in her opinion twice.

From here, Jack Smith will be able to appeal the dismissal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court will certainly hear the case and probably hold oral argument on the matter. But even if it were to be heard on an expedited basis, and even if the appeals court were to overturn Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling, this all but guarantees the classified documents case could not go to trial before the election.

The ruling doesn’t have any immediate impact on the Washington, D.C., election interference case. Trump’s team never challenged that case on appointments clause grounds, but they could make that argument once District Judge Tanya Chutkan regains the case in early August.

Nothing about today’s ruling to dismiss the case is binding on Chutkan. The only courts that can direct Chutkan to rule in a particular manner in the D.C. case are the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Some House Republicans quickly began to celebrate the dismissal of the classified documents case against the former president today.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., appeared to suggest that the federal judge overseeing the case, Judge Aileen Cannon, should be appointed to the Supreme Court.

“Future Supreme Court Justice Cannon,” Gaetz wrote in a post on X, coupled with an image of Cannon.

Trump nominated Cannon to the federal bench in 2020.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote on X that the dismissal is a “win for President Trump is a victory for the rule of law.”

Stephen Miller, senior adviser to Trump, praised the Florida judge who dismissed Trump’s classified documents case.

“Amazing what happens when you have a neutral and impartial jurist applying the law instead of rabid radical Trump-democrat partisans in robes,” Miller wrote in a post to X, referring to Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated by Trump.

Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, reacted quickly on X to Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling.

“This is a deeply corrupt act by a Trump judge. Very scary the powers his people want to give him,” he said.

(Cannon was nominated by Trump and confirmed with 56 votes by a Republican-controlled Senate in November 2020.)

In her 93-page ruling tossing the Justice Department’s case accusing Trump of mishandling classified documents, Judge Aileen Cannon argued that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith incorrectly sidestepped Congress’ power to confirm high-level administration appointments.

“The bottom line is this: The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers, and it gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers. The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps that important legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers,” she wrote.

She went on to argue that the special counsel would have needed congressional approval or authorization to be a valid appointment.

During the first of his daily RNC press conferences this morning, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson briefly highlighted security measures in place for the Republican National Convention in light of the assassination attempt on Trump.

Johnson said two arrests have been made around the secure convention sites, both “involving individuals who were intoxicated.” He described both arrests as “uneventful.”

Johnson, a Democrat, also maintained his support for Biden and praised the president’s calls for unity in response to the shooting at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle expressed confidence in the security plans for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week after the attempted assassination of Trump.

After extending her condolences to the family and friends of Corey Comperatore, who was killed during the Trump rally shooting Saturday, Cheatle noted in a statement that Secret Service agents moved swiftly to kill the suspected gunman and guide Trump to safety. Cheatle said she has been in continual contact with Secret Service personnel in Pennsylvania since the shooting, has been coordinating with Trump’s protective detail and has briefed Biden on details of the incident.

Cheatle said she is “confident” in the security plan for the RNC, noting that the Secret Service works with federal, state and local law enforcement, as well as public safety personnel on security plans for big events such as the convention.

“I am confident in the security plan our Secret Service RNC coordinator and our partners have put in place, which we have reviewed and strengthened in the wake of Saturday’s shooting,” she said.

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At first, they sounded like firecrackers, Blake Marnell said of the gunshots that rang out Saturday at Trump’s really.

Once he realized what had happened, “I was wondering if he was dead. I was really just trying to listen to what the Secret Service was saying,” Marnell told NBC San Diego. He had been standing in front of Trump’s lectern.

When the gunfire stopped, Marnell got up and saw Trump bleeding. “We saw him walk off largely under his own power,” he said.

The Capitol Police said in a statement that it has been operating in a “heightened threat environment” for several months following threats on members of Congress and called Trump’s assassination attempt “a tragedy of historic proportions.”

“We have been working with our federal, state and local partners on a comprehensive security plan to protect the Members of Congress during both political conventions,” the law enforcement agency said, without providing specific details of its expanded operations.

The New York City Police Department also warned of increased political violence, according to a counterterrorism memo obtained by NBC New York, saying the incident “is likely to resonate with violent extremists.”

Former colleagues at Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department mourned the loss of Corey Comperatore, their former chief who was killed while shielding his daughters during the attempted assassination of Trump.

“He’s a man who would give the shirt off his back to anyone,” Craig Cirrinncione said. “He was a man of love,” he added.

A lot of questions need answering about how a shooter was able to get so close to Trump. NBC News’ Jay Gray reports from Butler, Pennsylvania, with the latest details of the investigations.

Secret Service and local law enforcement representatives said yesterday there are no plans to change the security measures for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.

“We’re not anticipating any changes to our operational security plans for this event,” said the Secret Service’s RNC coordinator, Audrey Gibson-Cicchino.

Read the full story here.

Britain’s King Charles has written to Trump, Buckingham Palace confirmed today, without divulging the details of the message.

Trump paid a state visit to Britain in 2019 when he was president and met Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Recalling the “very surreal experience” that nearly took his life, Trump said he was grateful for the Secret Service who took down the suspected shooter and shielded him.

“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” he told the New York Post yesterday, as he sported a large white bandage covering his right ear. “The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” he said.

Commenting on a picture taken after he got up that showed him raising his fist, he said, “Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.” Trump also explained why he asked for his shoes in the moments just after the shooting. “The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight,” he said.

While he was rushed to a car soon after, Trump said, “I just wanted to keep speaking, but I just got shot.”

He said he appreciated getting a call from Biden, calling it “fine” and said the president was “very nice.”

A video has emerged showing Trump supporters watching the former president speak from a few hundred feet away, where they spotted a man crawling on the roof of a nearby building.

“There he is, right there,” a man is heard saying in an almost minutelong video verified by NBC News.

This video is among other witness accounts that have emerged from the rally site, showing some rallygoers had spotted the suspected shooter before he fired toward the former president.

“He’s lying down,” a woman says in the video. Another voice is heard calling “officer!”

Two people familiar with Secret Service operations told NBC News that the nearby rooftop had been identified as a potential vulnerability in the days before the event.

BUTLER, Pa. — Two women who watched Trump’s rally from a neighboring property described what they called lax safety measures beyond the event’s security perimeter.

Valerie Fennell and Deb Kuminkoski had tickets to go to the rally but, because of the heat and the large crowd, they decided to hang back and watch from Fennell’s backyard, which backs up to the area where the rally was held.

Fennell’s backyard is in a grassy area between where the Trump crowd gathered and the AGR factory where the shooter was perched on the roof of one of the buildings, about 150 yards away.

The shooter’s bullets soared right over their heads on their way toward Trump and his supporters as they watched the event, they said.

Read the full story here.

A Biden campaign official indicated that the campaign would return to the cycle’s activities after his interview with NBC News tomorrow.

The official said that “both the DNC and the campaign will continue drawing the contrast between our positive vision for the future and Trump and Republicans’ backwards-looking agenda over the course of the week.”