Florida: A US judge dismissed the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of mishandling classified information, an extraordinary turn of events nearly two years after FBI agents searched his Florida estate for missing national secrets and as he strives to regain the White House.
In a 93-page order on Monday, US District Judge Aileen Cannon found that Attorney General Merrick Garland's appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional. It caps a string of recent legal wins for Trump in various criminal cases pending against him, including last month's blockbuster US Supreme Court decision finding presidents are at least partially immune from prosecution for official acts.
The Justice Department is widely expected to appeal Cannon's decision. A spokesperson for Smith's office did not immediately return a request for comment.
The dismissal comes as Trump prepares to accept the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee following an assassination attempt over the weekend that injured the former president. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the dismissal of the Florida case "should be just the first step," calling for an end to criminal and civil cases against him in other courts. He repeated his claims that all of the legal action he'd faced after leaving the White House represented "political attacks" aimed at stopping him from retaking the presidency.
Spokespeople for Trump and Biden's campaigns did not immediately return requests for comment. The White House declined to comment, and referred questions to the Justice Department.
Cannon, who was appointed to the federal bench in south Florida by Trump in 2020, found that Congress didn't provide Garland the clear authority to appoint or provide funding for the special counsel.
"The Court is convinced that Special Counsel 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 has faced scrutiny for her handling of Trump's case, from the substance of her rulings to her decision to indefinitely postpone setting a trial date. The government's appeal of Monday's decision could also give Smith's office an opening to push for Cannon to be removed from the case, said Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor.
"This order could be a blessing in disguise," McQuade said.
Winning Streak
The dismissal follows a series of victories for the former president on the legal front.
Trump was supposed to have been in New York last week for his sentencing in his hush money case, for which he was convicted in May. Citing the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision granting him and all presidents at least partial immunity, Trump's defense team successfully asked to postpone the sentencing while they argue for that conviction to be tossed out.
Cannon's ruling referred to a separate opinion that Justice Clarence Thomas wrote as part of the Supreme Court's immunity decision, in which he raised concerns about the constitutionality of Smith's appointment.
"There does appear to be a 'tradition' of appointing special-attorney-like figures in moments of political scandal throughout the country's history," Cannon wrote. "But very few, if any, of these figures actually resemble the position of Special Counsel Smith. Mr. Smith is a private citizen exercising the full power of a United States Attorney, and with very little oversight or supervision."
Cannon was also critical of the federal regulations that govern the appointment of special counsels, which she said "give an exceedingly broad charge" and then "impose virtually no mechanism for supervision or control by the Attorney General."
Alleged Conspiracy
Trump was charged with unlawfully holding onto dozens of classified documents after he left office on Jan. 20, 2021, and of conspiring with aides to obstruct the government's efforts to get those materials back. During the search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022, agents reported recovering more than a hundred documents with classified markings. A federal grand jury returned an indictment last summer.
Following the immunity decision earlier this month, Trump's lawyers had asked to pause the bulk of the documents case so that both sides could fight over the significance of the Supreme Court's order. Trump's lawyers argued he should be immune from counts related to possessing classified documents because any decisions he made as president about what records to designate as personal and take with him were protected official acts.
The Justice Department countered that the Presidential Records Act "- the federal law governing the handling of a president's "personal" and "presidential" materials "- was irrelevant to the question of whether Trump illegally kept state secrets for years at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Smith is separately pursuing another criminal case against Trump in a federal court in Washington, accusing him of unlawfully conspiring to obstruct the 2020 presidential election results. Cannon's order is not binding on the judge overseeing that case and it has been on hold while the two sides fight over Trump's immunity from prosecution. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan is expected to resume those proceedings in a few weeks after the Supreme Court formally sends it back to her.
A state case against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia, has been on hold amid a fight over whether District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified because of her relationship with a member of the team handling the prosecution.
Trump's legal woes have been a large source of his small-dollar fundraising boost, which enabled him to overtake Biden in the money race.
