Judge Aileen Cannon (Image: Florida Bar Association)
On Monday, federal Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified document case against former President Donald Trump.
Cannon determined that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the case against Trump, had not been appointed to this position by the president or confirmed by the Senate violating the U.S. Constitution’s appointments clause.
Cannon’s ruling follows Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ questioning of Smith’s appointment two weeks earlier in its presidential immunity decision. Cannon’s decision contradicted the decades of court rulings on the legality of how prosecutors are named, which can be traced back to the Watergate era. Numerous prosecutors have been named following this procedure in recent decades.
The case against Trump charged him with withholding documents containing sensitive state secrets after his presidency and obstructing government efforts to retrieve the records. The FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home to retrieve the documents Trump allegedly took illegally.
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Cannon was appointed to her federal judge position by Trump in 2020. Her ruling removed a legal threat for Trump on the first day of the Republican National Convention when Trump was expected to be named the official GOP candidate for the presidential election.
Smith and his team are expected to appeal this ruling and potentially call for Cannon’s removal. If Trump wins the presidency, he is expected to urge the Department of Justice to drop the case entirely.
Trump has previously claimed that the DOJ has been weaponized against him by the Democratic party.
On Monday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, following a failed assassination attempt against the former president this weekend.
“The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME,” Trump wrote.
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