Monday, July 15, 2024, 4:31 PM
A US judge on Monday dismissed a criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally withholding classified documents, giving the former Republican president another major legal victory in his bid to return to the White House.
Trump-nominated Florida District Attorney Aileen Cannon ruled that special prosecutor Jack Smith, who was in charge of the case, was illegally appointed to his position and had no authority.
It marks another major legal victory for Trump, after the US Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that as a former president he enjoyed immunity from prosecution for many of his actions in office.
Prosecutors are likely to appeal the ruling. In other cases, courts have repeatedly upheld the ability of the US Justice Department to appoint special prosecutors to handle certain politically sensitive investigations.
But Cannon’s ruling casts into doubt the future of the case, which once posed a grave legal jeopardy for Trump. Smith is also suing Trump in federal court in Washington for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but his lawyers have not filed a similar challenge to the special counsel.
Mar-a-Lago
In the documents case, Trump was accused of deliberately withholding sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago social club after leaving office and obstructing government efforts to recover the material.
Trump’s personal assistant Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Olivera were also charged with obstructing the investigation.
Trump’s lawyers challenged the legal authority of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s 2022 decision to appoint Smith to lead investigations into Trump. They argued that the appointment violated the U.S. Constitution because his position was not created by Congress and was not confirmed by the Senate.
Lawyers for Smith’s office disputed Trump’s claims, arguing there was a well-established practice of using special prosecutors to handle politically sensitive investigations.
The ruling is the latest and most consequential in a series of decisions by Cannon favoring Trump’s defense and expressing skepticism about prosecutors’ conduct. The judge had previously postponed a trial indefinitely while he considered a series of legal challenges from Trump.
In an unusual move, he allowed three outside lawyers, including two who sided with Trump, to argue during a court hearing focused on Trump’s challenge to Smith’s appointment.
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas also gave a boost to Trump’s challenge to the special counsel. In an opinion that echoed the court’s decision to grant Trump broad immunity in the election case, Thomas questioned whether Smith’s appointment was legal using arguments similar to those put forward by Trump’s lawyers.
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