Politics
Ron DeSantis’ political maneuvering on Trump suspect could have legal consequences
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Tuesday directing state authorities to investigate Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. The governor downplayed the federal charges brought Monday against suspect Ryan Routhsaying, “To say you’re going to do a couple gun charges, that is not going to be sufficient to do it.”
Routh has been charged in federal court with two gun possession counts. But as I noted at the time, those aren’t necessarily the final word on his federal charges. Those charges might have just been the simplest that federal prosecutors in Florida could bring while the government investigates in advance of potentially bringing more serious charges later.
Yet DeSantis implied that the feds have not been doing everything they could — or that whatever they could do isn’t enough. The governor’s remarks cast doubt on the federal effort generally, suggesting it would be more appropriate for state authorities to take the lead.
Of course, it’s not unusual for both state and federal law enforcement to investigate potential crimes that could be charged in their respective courts. And double jeopardy rules don’t bar the same conduct from being charged at both levels.
But it could be counterproductive for DeSantis to create a wedge between the state and the feds if the goal is to bring the strongest possible case against Routh. To the extent that state and federal authorities don’t fully cooperate with one another, that could be inefficient at the investigative stage. It could also create potential issues at any eventual trial(s) if they aren’t on the same page and each side isn’t fully aware of evidence that the other has — or if their separate evidence is at all contradictory. Relatedly, neither state nor federal prosecutors should want a situation where one or the other is rushing to be first to bring the most serious charges.
And while DeSantis suggested that more serious crimes like attempted murder couldn’t be brought federally, that’s not necessarily so. Indeed, it wouldn’t be surprising if more serious charges are brought as the case proceeds in federal court while Routh remains in custody.
To be sure, attempted murder charges could face challenges at either the state or federal level, which may be why Routh wasn’t immediately charged with such a crime federally. That Routh apparently didn’t fire any shots before allegedly fleeing the scene would not prevent him from being charged with attempted murder. For example, Nicholas Roske, who’s charged with attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, didn’t fire a weapon, though statements he allegedly made to law enforcement admitting his intentions may have made it easier to charge him quickly.
When it comes to the charge of attempted murder, the legal question is whether the defendant took a “substantial step” toward committing the crime, as opposed to “mere preparation.” Routh allegedly was lying in wait with a rifle at Trump’s golf course, so prosecutors may be able to prove an attempt. Prosecutors may be considering whether they have enough evidence to make that argument — or they may already feel confident that they can bring such a case, but given that Routh isn’t going anywhere while he’s being held on the gun charges, they feel they can take the time to collect evidence to build the case.
Whatever comes of the charges against Routh, any discrepancies that result from different law enforcement investigations moving forward could wind up working to his benefit in the end.
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Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined BLN, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
Brazil has won a record five World Cups, but the most important match it has ever played may have been an exhibition match against Haiti that was meaningless in sporting terms but has had a long influence on each country’s politics.
On Aug. 18, 2004, Brazil’s players drove through the streets of Port-au-Prince in armored personnel carriers, World Cup champions greeted like liberators. Two months earlier, Brazil’s military had arrived to lead a multinational peacekeeping force established by the United Nations following a bloody coup d’état.
“We’ve only seen such joy in the eyes, the exuberance of the eyes, when we paraded in Brazil after winning the World Cup,” coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said afterwards. “I will never forget this moment.”
The team was accompanied to the U.N.-hosted friendly match that followed — “They play, peace wins,” went the slogan — by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, then in his first term as Brazil’s president. More than two decades later, Lula is back in office, now cemented as the most accomplished leader the world’s left has seen in the 21st century. His approach to foreign policy, say observers, was shaped partially on the soccer pitch that day in Port-au-Prince.
“It showed he was trying something different as a diplomatic tool,” said Mauricio Savarese, an Associated press political reporter in São Paulo who has researched the legacy of the 2004 game. “That match at the time was a symbol of Brazil’s soft power. You really showed how Brazil could win hearts and minds with a policy that was not exactly bowing to the United States or to the China or to Russia, but independent.”
The match, designed to build goodwill between a shell-shocked population and its benevolent occupiers, began after players from the two national teams unfurled a pre-match banner that read “Social Justice is the True Name of Peace.” The peacekeeping mission represented an early commitment to “continental solidarity,” as Lula defined it in a speech the following year to up-and-coming diplomats where he cited the Haiti mission as an example of “non-indifference.”
Lula was feeling his way toward a foreign policy centered around South-South Cooperation and the BRICS alliance of emerging markets. Lula has used that role as de-facto leader of the democratic developing world to, with mixed results, position Brazil as a leader on climate change — it hosted last year’s COP30 in the Amazon city of Belém — and a mediator when thorny international conflicts arise. It has a position of official neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war, so as to serve a potential role as mediator, as it did when partnering with Turkey in 2010 to broker a nuclear-fuel swap with Iran.
That same year, an earthquake hit Haiti, killing over 100,000 people while injuring and displacing millions more. It also destroyed the headquarters of the U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, even as Brazil led a post-disaster humanitarian relief effort. The experience further deepened ties between the two countries, as Brazil introduced a humanitarian-visa program for the first time to welcome Haitians fleeing the devastation; it has since been extended to Syrian war refugees, as well. One historically Italian neighborhood in São Paulo is now known as Little Haiti.
The broader peacekeeping mission began to resemble a military quagmire in humanitarian garb: Brazilian troops were blamed for human-rights violations and a cholera epidemic, while doing little to improve the overall security situation. For Lula and his protegée Dilma Rousseff, the Haiti project became a political liability, in both Haiti and Brazil.
As the two nations prepare to face off against one another in Philadelphia on Friday, Lula is not expected to be in attendance. Instead his travel schedule this week was built around the G7 summit in France, in which Brazil participated as one of five “partner countries” — a reflection of its increased global standing over the past few decades. If Lula shows up at one of Brazil’s matches later in the World Cup, it will likely be with a domestic audience in mind rather than a foreign one: he is in the midst of a reelection campaign for his fourth term, against a son of his longtime antagonist Jair Bolsonaro.
“I doubt that anyone is going to vote for him just because he’s recognized abroad as a key leader,” said Savarese, Brazilian political journalist who wrote the book “Dilma’s Downfall.” “But of course that helps with some moderates, which are a very thin part of Brazil’s electorate, and they’re going to be decisive in October’s election, that is also one of the things that tips the balance in his favor, as is being seen as this pragmatic leader who can also be respected even when he’s speaking about issues that clearly don’t affect as much in Brazil’s daily life.”
That day in Haiti, not yet a global figure, Lula confronted one limit on his power. He reportedly asked his team not to score too many goals, in the interests of goodwill. The players did not oblige, winning 6-0, including an astonishing solo effort from Ronaldinho.
Blue Light News has been crunching the numbers to see how all 48 of this year’s World Cup participants rank in several other off-field categories, which we’ll share more of over the weekend.
In today’s item, we look at whether GDP per capita has any connection to soccer performance. As you can see, the chart does show some positive correlation — note, for example, wealthy tournament contenders such as France, the Netherlands and Germany all in the upper right corner.
But it’s not a perfect indicator. By this metric, Qatar is the wealthiest country in the tournament — and it lost 6-0 to Canada on Thursday …
CANBERRA — It was disappointment from start to finish around the USA vs. Australia match in the Bush Capital, won comfortably by the American side.
Neither of Canberra’s Socceroos made the starting lineup and the local government failed to provide an outdoor watch site for the match, despite a heavy social media campaign from locals. With federal politicians out of town and back in their districts this week, the campaign lacked star power and fell on deaf ears.
That left thousands to fill inner city pubs and the University of Canberra, which were allowed special trading hours for the match, from 4.30 a.m.
Australia’s politicians — vocal in their support in the lead-up to the match — went silent quickly, after Australia’s own goal 11 minutes minutes into the game.
If the Aussies’ lackluster performance left the crowd subdued, they found energy to boo Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a notably unpopular figure in Australia, which embraced harsh Covid lockdowns and vaccines — when he appeared on the match broadcast.
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