Former President Donald Trump
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U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump over the way special counsel Jack Smith was appointed.
“The supplemental indictment is DISMISSED because the appointment of Special Prosecutor Smith violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution,” wrote Cannon, who was appointed to the position by the former president. She said the Constitution only gives Congress or the president the power to appoint a special prosecutor, not the U.S. attorney general.
Smith had challenged that argument, and other federal courts had upheld the constitutionality of special prosecutors. But Cannon’s decision, even with the likely outcome of an appeal, would add months to the deadline.
“None of the statutes cited as statutory authority for the appointment … gives the Attorney General broad authority to appoint subordinate officers or confers on him the right to appoint a federal officer with the type of prosecutorial power exercised by Special Counsel Smith,” Cannon wrote. “Nor do the Special Counsel’s strained statutory arguments, his appeals to inconsistent backgrounds, or his reliance on out-of-the-way authority persuade otherwise.”
His opinion closely follows the reasoning laid out by conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a recent concurring decision in a separate case against Trump.
The special counsel’s case focused on whether Trump took classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, stored them in unsecured rooms like a ballroom and bathroom, and then refused to return them to the government.
The Justice Department has granted the special counsel the right to appeal the order, a Smith spokesman said. The appeal will be heard before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The dismissal of the case departs from the consistent conclusion of all previous courts that have considered the issue that the attorney general is legally authorized to appoint a special prosecutor,” spokesman Peter Carr said.
Trump welcomed the dismissal and called for all other charges against him to be dropped as well, including criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“As we move forward in uniting our nation after the horrific events of Saturday, this dismissal of the lawless indictment in Florida should be just the first step,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these political attacks, which are an election interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s political opponent, ME.”
Trump’s lawyers declined to comment further. The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the dismissal of the case.
News Source : www.npr.org
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