https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/15/us/trump-documents-case-dismissed
Live Updates: Judge Dismisses Classified Documents Case Against Trump
Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that the entire case should be thrown out because the appointment of the special counsel who brought the case, Jack Smith, had violated the Constitution. Her decision is sure to be appealed.
Judge Cannon’s ruling will create a pathway for an appeal to the Supreme Court before the case can move forward — and, for that matter, for the special counsel, Jack Smith, to ask an appeals court to remove her. But it all may be moot since Judge Cannon’s previous delays have already all but ensured there could be no trial until after the 2024 election. If Trump wins, as polls currently indicate is likely, he could use his power over the Justice Department to have it scuttle the case anyway.
The ruling is an attempt to roll back nearly 30 years of how special counsels, like Jack Smith, have gotten their jobs. In short, special counsels are now governed by Justice Department regulations set by the discretion and through the statutory authority of the attorney general. That has been the case since the Clinton administration, when the previous law governing independent prosecutors was allowed to lapse in the wake of the Whitewater investigations.
There was a consensus opinion at the time of the switch that special prosecutors needed to be independent enough to handle sensitive political investigations without undue influence from powerful politicians, but no so independent that they would encourage prosecutors to run amok and abuse their power.
A federal judge dismissed in its entirety the classified documents case against former President Donald J. Trump on Monday, ruling that the appointment of the special counsel, Jack Smith, had violated the Constitution.
In a stunning ruling, the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, found that because Mr. Smith had not been named to the post of special counsel by the president or confirmed by the Senate, his appointment was in violation of the appointments clause of the Constitution.
The ruling by Judge Cannon, who was put on the bench by Mr. Trump, flew in the face of previous court decisions reaching back to the Watergate era that upheld the legality of the ways in which independent prosecutors have been named. And in a single swoop, it removed a major legal threat against Mr. Trump on the first day of the Republican National Convention, where he is set to formally become the party’s nominee for president.
Mr. Smith’s team will almost certainly appeal the ruling by Judge Cannon throwing out the classified documents indictment, which charges Mr. Trump with illegally holding onto a trove of highly sensitive state secrets after he left office and then obstructing the government’s repeated efforts to retrieve them.
Judge Cannon’s ruling will create a pathway for an appeal to the Supreme Court before the case can move forward — and, for that matter, for the special counsel, Jack Smith, to ask an appeals court to remove her. But it all may be moot since Judge Cannon’s previous delays have already all but ensured there could be no trial until after the 2024 election. If Trump wins, as polls currently indicate is likely, he could use his power over the Justice Department to have it scuttle the case anyway.
The ruling is an attempt to roll back nearly 30 years of how special counsels, like Jack Smith, have gotten their jobs. In short, special counsels are now governed by Justice Department regulations set by the discretion and through the statutory authority of the attorney general. That has been the case since the Clinton administration, when the previous law governing independent prosecutors was allowed to lapse in the wake of the Whitewater investigations.
There was a consensus opinion at the time of the switch that special prosecutors needed to be independent enough to handle sensitive political investigations without undue influence from powerful politicians, but no so independent that they would encourage prosecutors to run amok and abuse their power.
