Judge Dismisses Classified Documents Case Against Donald Trump

Donald Trump was spared one of his biggest legal obstacles on Monday, July 15, when a US federal judge dropped the case involving confidential materials.

The appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was declared to have violated the Constitution by District Judge Aileen Cannon in a 93-page judgement.

“In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny,” Cannon wrote.

The Republican National Convention begins on the first day of the Cannon ruling, which was made by the judge Trump selected in 2020.

Among the four lawsuits that were still pending against Trump, many legal experts had considered the case involving the classified papers to be the strongest.

Last year, Trump was accused by Smith’s Special Counsel of stealing secret documents from the White House and thwarting efforts by the government to obtain them. He made a not guilty plea.

The special counsel was pursuing federal charges in a different criminal complaint Smith filed against Trump in Washington, DC, related to Trump’s efforts to void the results of the 2020 election.

In addition, Trump is dealing with a state-level election subversion case in Georgia. Earlier this year, he was found guilty of state crimes in New York for his involvement in a hush money payment scheme that took place prior to the 2016 election.

During a hearing on the subject a few weeks ago, Cannon pressed lawyers to provide a detailed explanation of the funding source for Smith’s probe into Trump.

The questions posed by the court were so sharp that James Pearce, the special counsel, contended that the Justice Department was “prepared” to support Smith’s cases all the way to trial, even in the event that Cannon dismissed the case on the grounds of an appointments clause dispute.

In her decision today, Cannon stated that the appointment of a special counsel “effectively usurps” Congress’ “important legislative authority” by placing it in the hands of the department head (in this case, the Department of Justice) to name such an official.

“If the political branches wish to grant the Attorney General power to appoint Special Counsel Smith to investigate and prosecute this action with the full powers of a United States Attorney, there is a valid means by which to do so,” she wrote.

The Justice Department “could reallocate funds to finance the continued operation of Special Counsel Smith’s office,” but said it’s not yet clear whether a newly-brought case would pass legal muster.

“For more than 18 months, Special Counsel Smith’s investigation and prosecution has been financed by substantial funds drawn from the Treasury without statutory authorization, and to try to rewrite history at this point seems near impossible,” Cannon wrote.

“The Court has difficulty seeing how a remedy short of dismissal would cure this substantial separation-of-powers violation, but the answers are not entirely self-evident, and the caselaw is not well developed.”

She stated in her decision that at a court hearing on the subject, Smith’s team “suggested” that they reorganise the office’s finances in order to allay her worries.

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli