Judge Tosses Trump’s Classified Docs Case
Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed the classified documents case against former Donald Trump, ruling that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith — who has been overseeing the Justice Department’s two cases against the former president — was unconstitutional.
In a Monday decision, Cannon sided with Trump’s attorneys that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith was inherently “unlawful.” The decision comes weeks after the Supreme Court sided with the former president on the question of whether a president should be afforded prosecutorial immunity for crimes committed while in office.
“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,” Cannon wrote. “If the political branches wish to grant the Attorney General power to appoint Special Counsel Smith to investigate and prosecute this action with the full powers of a United States Attorney, there is a valid means by which to do so.”
Trump responded to the decision with a post on Truth Social. “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,” he wrote, going on to rail against President Joe Biden.
In August 2022, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities seized hundreds of classified documents retained by the former president following his departure from the White House, and last June the Justice Department charged Trump with 37 counts related to his allegedly unlawful retention of classified material.
Cannon, a Trump appointee, has been previously criticized for a slew of decisions favoring Trump’s position in the case that have run against precedent and suggested a marked bias towards the former president. As Rolling Stone has reported, Trump has privately suggested that Cannon will be a model for judicial picks in a potential second term — and that Republicans “need more like her.”
With this ruling, Cannon has effectively usurped the long-standing structure surrounding the appointment of special counsels by the Justice Department.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents are entitled to immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office. The case that came before the court stemmed from a challenge to a separate indictment brought by Smith against Trump over his efforts to interfere with the results of the 2020 election. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas went further than the court’s 6-3 decision, writing that “in this case, the Attorney General purported to appoint a private citizen as Special Counsel to prosecute a former President on behalf of the United States. But, I am not sure that any office for the Special Counsel has been ‘established by Law,’ as the Constitution requires.”
“If this unprecedented prosecution is to proceed, it must be conducted by someone duly authorized to do so by the American people. The lower courts should thus answer these essential questions concerning the Special Counsel’s appointment before proceeding,” he added.
It seems Cannon heard Thomas’ argument.
The classified documents case was one of four major criminal cases brought against Trump since last spring. He was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York this May, but sentencing was delayed following the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. The ruling has also thrown the status of the Justice Department’s case against Trump for his role in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election into flux, as Trump was still in office as that effort was taking place. Trump was also charged in Georgia for his efforts to undermine the state’s election results, but that case also figures to be significantly delayed by the Supreme Court’s ruling.
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