The judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith dropped the lawsuit entirely on Monday, citing constitutionality grounds.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon said the reason for granting Trump’s request to throw out the case was that Smith “violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution” by not having been appointed to the position of special counsel by President Joe Biden nor confirmed by the Senate.
“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 her 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. 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.”
The case charged Trump with 40 criminal counts surrounding the alleged mishandling of classified documents following his presidency and deliberately thwarting the Department of Justice’s investigation of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
This is a big legal win for Trump — and his aides Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, who were also charged in the case — as he heads into the beginning of the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin on Monday, where he is expected to become the GOP’s official presidential nominee.
Trump and his aides all pleaded not guilty.
“We certainly agree with the court’s decision. But this case has been absurd from the start and Carlos should never have been put in this situation by the government,” one of Oliveira’s attorneys said in a statement, per CBS News.
The granted dismissal also comes just days after the presumptive presidential nominee narrowly avoided an assassination attempt while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
“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 posted on social media following the ruling.
“The January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C., the Manhattan D.A.’s Zombie Case, the New York A.G. Scam, Fake Claims about a woman I never met (a decades old photo in a line with her then husband does not count), and the Georgia ‘Perfect’ Phone Call charges. The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME. Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!”
Utah Sen. Mike Lee posted on X following the ruling, “Good news for America. Bad news for lawfare and the weaponization of our justice system.”
“(The classified documents case) was once considered to be the most straightforward of the four criminal cases he has faced,” according to The New York Times. “Judge Cannon has now essentially erased it — unless prosecutors can have the indictment reinstated on appeal.”
Smith’s office has not yet publicly commented on the dismissal of the case but is likely to appeal the action. The case would then be contested in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and possibly in the Supreme Court.