On Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon dismissed the indictment against Trump and two co-defendants after finding that Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution.
Its decision departs from decisions of other courts upholding the constitutionality of such appointments.
Trump’s legal team asked months ago to dismiss the case, arguing that federal regulations suggest Smith wields so much authority as he leads the prosecution of Trump that Congress and President Biden should have been involved in his nomination.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who said a special prosecutor was needed to assure the public that the politically charged prosecution of Trump — the 2024 Republican presidential nominee — would be protected from interference by the Biden administration.
Although special prosecutors enjoy greater independence than most federal prosecutors, the Justice Department has said they must adhere to agency protocols and the attorney general can review key steps in their investigations.
Whatever the 11th Circuit decides in the Trump case could then be appealed to the Supreme Court.
In 2022, a three-judge panel of the Atlanta appeals court rebuked Cannon in a separate case, unanimously overturning his decision to appoint an outside expert to decide whether some of the material collected as part of the investigation into the Trump documents case should be protected from criminal investigators.
Trump has been accused of taking dozens of highly classified documents with him after leaving the White House and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. In total, more than 300 classified documents have been returned or recovered from Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club in Florida.
In response to the filing, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called for national unity following the attempted assassination of the former president in Pennsylvania on Saturday and urged the Justice Department to drop charges against him.
News Source : www.washingtonpost.com
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