The federal judge overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump and his two codefendants has dismissed the charges against them, ruling that the appointment and funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution was in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.
“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,” wrote U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in her 93-page order. “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.”
Trump had faced 40 charges stemming from his handling of sensitive documents after leaving office and supposedly “obstructing the Justice Department’s investigation.” The FBI on August 8, 2023, conducted an unannounced raid of Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, prompting Trump to lament in a press release: “These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.”
The judge wrote that if the political branches want to grant the attorney general power to appoint Smith to investigate and prosecute Trump, with the powers of a U.S. attorney, there is a valid means to do so: he can be appointed and confirmed through the means laid out in the Appointments Clause, or Congress can authorize his appointment through legislation consistent with the Constitution.
Cannon also wrote in her ruling that the dismissal only applies to the classified documents case and not Smith’s January 6 case against Trump, which is out of her jurisdiction.
This stunning development comes less than 48 hours after Trump survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. In a statement Saturday night, Trump said “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was quickly neutralized by Secret Service.
Trump posted on Truth social early Sunday morning, that it was “God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening” and that he would “fear not.”
Trump will formally accept the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Milwaukee, this week.
The former president told Salena Zito of the Washington Examiner that his speech at the convention will “a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago.”
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together,” he said.