Federal Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case of former President Trump on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed. The decision brings a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats that the Republican former president confronted, reports the Associated Press. Trump faced dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. Defense lawyers asserted that special counsel Jack Smith had been illegally appointed under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause and that his office was improperly funded by the Justice Department.
Cannon, whose handling of the case had drawn scrutiny since before the charges were filed, said, “The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers. That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere — whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not.” Smith’s team vigorously contested the argument during hearings before Cannon last month and told Cannon that even if ruled in the defense team’s favor, the proper correction would not be to dismiss the entire case.