Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org, I'm Ian Masters,

and today we're looking at a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin with a shockingly partisan decision from Judge Eileen Cannon

to dismiss the documents case against Trump in Florida

on made-up legal grounds, apparently taking a cue from Supreme Court Justice Thomas,

joining us to discuss what moves Jack Smith could make to advance the most winnable

case against Trump forward after repeated and capricious delays by the Trump-appointed

Judge Cannon is Michael Greenberger, the former principal deputy associate attorney general

at the United States Justice Department, where he supervised

work on national security matters. He's the founder and director of the Center for Health and

Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, where he also teaches constitutional law.

Then we'll assess Trump's choice of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance for Vice President announced today on the first day of the

Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, just two days after Trump literally dodged an

assassin's bullet millimeters away from taking his life. Joining us is Jeffrey Kappa Service,

the Vice President of Political Studies,

at the Niscannon Center in Washington, D.C., as well as the author of several books, including Rule and Ruin,

The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party,

from Eisenhower to the Tea Party.

Then finally we'll examine China's penetration of Europe via the Hungarian

autocrat and kleptocrat Victor Orbán, who appears to be a courier funneling secret messages from Putin

and Xi Jinping to Trump. Joining us is Kim Lane Schleppley, a professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University.

She lived in Budapest, doing research at the Constitutional Court of Hungary,

and teaching at both the University of Budapest and at Central European University,

...