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Donald Trump has caught another enormous legal break.
On Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified-documents case brought against Trump by the federal government, handing him a crucial win in what most legal experts considered to be among the strongest of the indictments against him. Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote in her 93-page motion that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment and the subsequent funding of his work are in violation of the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution. She issued her ruling in response to a motion challenging the legality of Smith’s appointment, but said that it does not pertain to Smith’s other matters, likely referring to the government’s election-subversion case against Trump.
“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” Cannon wrote.
Cannon’s ruling appears to have its roots in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity announced earlier this month. Their 6-3 ruling, which determined that past and future presidents can’t be prosecuted for official acts, was handed down in connection with Smith’s January 6 case, not the classified-documents matter, but one of the court’s justices used the matter to lay the groundwork for a challenge to Smith’s overall position.
In his concurrence, Justice Clarence Thomas said he was writing to “highlight another way in which this prosecution may violate our constitutional structure.” He said that an office for the special counsel hadn’t been established “by law” as required by the Constitution. “If there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution. A private citizen cannot criminally prosecute anyone, let alone a former President,” Thomas wrote. Cannon cited Thomas’s opinion multiple times within her ruling.
The classified-documents case, which marked the first indictment filed against Trump back in June 2023, has long been plagued by delays, many of them instigated by Cannon herself. Although Smith can appeal the ruling to the Eleventh Circuit, Cannon’s decision likely ensures that a potential trial in this matter won’t take place prior to the 2024 election in November.
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