CV NEWS FEED // In a stunning development, a federal judge on Monday dismissed a case against former President Donald Trump that accused him of keeping “classified documents” at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
The nearly 100-page ruling by Judge Aileen Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida hinged on the “unlawful” appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Cannon wrote that “Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution,” which is found in Article II Section 2. “Smith’s use of a permanent indefinite appropriation also violates” the clause, she wrote.
Garland controversially appointed Smith as special counsel in November 2022.
Later in her ruling, Cannon wrote:
The bottom line is this: The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers, and it gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers.
“The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps that important legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers,” she emphasized.
POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney noted that “Smith can appeal Judge Cannon’s dismissal of the case. His office has not indicated its intention yet.”
NBC News reported that Trump’s lawyers successfully argued to the court in February
that the appointments clause of the Constitution “does not permit the Attorney General to appoint, without Senate confirmation, a private citizen and like-minded political ally to wield the prosecutorial power of the United States. As such, Jack Smith lacks the authority to prosecute this action.”
In response, Smith’s lawyers argued that Garland “has statutory authority to appoint ‘inferior officers’ and that previous court decisions have affirmed the attorney general’s authority to appoint special counsels.”
Cannon ruled in favor of the argument made by Trump’s lawyers.
The Appointments Clause states that the president
shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
Trump appointed Cannon to the federal bench in November 2020.
Per POLITICO, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-FL, “was on the phone with former President Donald Trump when he got the news that the classified documents case had been dismissed.”
Donalds said that the former president “was excited, obviously.”
“He said, ‘Judge Cannon obviously made a great decision. Really happy with the decision and now hopefully that puts a lot of this stuff to bed,’” the congressman recounted.
