Florida (trfnews.i234.me) – A U.S. judge in Florida on Monday dismissed the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally keeping classified documents after leaving office, handing the Republican former president another major legal victory as he seeks a return to the White House.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, was unlawfully appointed to his role and did not have the authority to bring the case.
The judge found that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who named Smith in 2022 to oversee investigations involving Trump, did not have the authority “to appoint a federal officer with the kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith”.
Cannon also found that Smith’s investigation had been improperly funded through a permanent and unlimited fund Congress set aside in the 1980s for independent investigations.
This ruling marks another significant legal triumph for Trump, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 1 decision that he cannot be prosecuted for actions within his constitutional powers as president. That ruling involved charges pursued by Smith in a separate case against Trump in Washington involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Cannon’s ruling came two days after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania. Trump is set to be formally named the Republican presidential nominee in Milwaukee this week, challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
Prosecutors are likely to appeal Cannon’s ruling. Courts in other cases have repeatedly upheld the U.S. Justice Department’s ability to appoint special counsels for politically sensitive investigations.
Trump, in a social media post, called Cannon’s ruling “just the first step” and urged for the dismissal of all four criminal cases against him. He wrote, “Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System”.
In the documents case, Trump was indicted for willfully retaining sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in 2021 and obstructing government efforts to retrieve the material. Prosecutors stated the documents related to U.S. military and intelligence matters, including details about the American nuclear program.