U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday tossed former President Trump’s criminal charges accusing him of mishandling classified information, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith was not lawfully appointed.
The ruling hands a major victory to Trump, marking the first time one of his four criminal cases has been dismissed entirely.
Cannon ruled that no federal law authorized Smith’s appointment.
“The bottom line is this: The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers, and it gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers,” Cannon wrote in a 93-page ruling.
“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 said that, after “careful study,” she determined that no legal statute grants an attorney general authority to appoint a federal officer with the “kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith.”
Trump faced 40 charges stemming from his alleged mishandling classified records and efforts to obstruct the government’s retrieval of those records after he left the White House. He pleaded not guilty.
The decision comes just days after an attempted assassination against the former president.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The judge’s ruling echoes concerns voiced by Justice Clarence Thomas, one the Supreme Court’s leading conservatives, when the court ruled on Trump’s immunity defense in another of his cases. Cannon cited Thomas’s opinion three times.
“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,” Thomas wrote in a solo, concurring opinion.
The Hill has reached out to the special counsel’s office for comment.
Cannon, a Trump appointee, weighed the legality of the special counsel’s appointment at a hearing last month. In an unusual move, the judge had allowed outside parties to make arguments.
Her ruling throws into question the appointments of other special counsels, though Cannon made clear her determination is “confined to this proceeding.” Trump’s lawyers had not raised the argument in the special counsel’s other prosecution of the former president on charges of conspiring to subvert the 2020 election.
A separate special counsel was appointed to investigate any criminal wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and is expected to take a second case to trial in September. Hunter Biden was convicted on federal gun charges last month, following Special Counsel David Weiss’s investigation.
Though Cannon’s ruling doesn’t immediately impact those cases, it does dismiss the charges against Trump’s two co-defendants in his classified documents case as well.
The former president was charged alongside his valet, Walt Nauta, and the property manager of his Mar-a-Lago estate, Carlos De Oliveira.
Updated 10:48 a.m.
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