(Daily Caller News Foundation) — The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case granted his motion to dismiss the indictment Monday.
Judge Aileen Cannon agreed to dismiss the case based on Trump’s argument that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unlawful. She wrote that his appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
“Both the Appointments and Appropriations challenges as framed in the Motion raise the following threshold question: is there a statute in the United States Code that authorizes the appointment of Special Counsel Smith to conduct this prosecution?” Cannon wrote. “After careful study of this seminal issue, the answer is no.”
“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” Cannon wrote in the ruling.
🚨BREAKING: Judge Aileen Cannon has DISMISSED the Trump classified docs case stating that Jack Smith’s appointment by Biden’s DOJ was unconstitutional: pic.twitter.com/wACXrR5MLZ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 15, 2024
Justice Clarence Thomas recently questioned the constitutionality of Smith’s appointment in his concurring opinion in the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling, writing that it “may violate our constitutional structure.”
Trump was indicted in June 2023 on charges relating to his handling of classified documents and faced 41 felony counts. His attorneys filed their motion to dismiss the case in February.
