Federal Judge in Miami Dismisses Major Legal Case Against Trump, Citing Constitutional Violations
On Monday, July 15, a US federal judge dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, resolving one of his significant legal challenges. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution in her extensive 93-page decision.
Judge Cannon, appointed by Trump in 2020, emphasized in her ruling that recent trends of appointing special counsels lack substantial judicial oversight. "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,” she stated.
This decision coincides with the first day of the Republican National Convention, highlighting its political significance. Legal analysts had previously considered the classified documents case one of the strongest among the four pending cases against Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith had charged Trump last year with unlawfully taking classified documents from the White House and resisting government retrieval efforts. Trump pleaded not guilty to these charges. Smith is also pursuing a separate case against Trump in Washington, DC, related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. Additionally, Trump faces state-level election subversion charges in Georgia and was convicted in New York earlier this year for his involvement in a hush money payment scheme before the 2016 election.
Judge Cannon's ruling followed a hearing several weeks ago, where she scrutinized the funding of Smith’s investigation. She noted the special counsel’s investigation had been financed by substantial Treasury funds without statutory authorization for over 18 months. Cannon highlighted that while the Justice Department could potentially reallocate funds to continue Smith's investigation, any newly initiated case might still face legal challenges.
“The Court has difficulty seeing how a remedy short of dismissal would cure this substantial separation-of-powers violation,”
Cannon wrote, expressing doubts about the legal viability of the special counsel’s office restructuring its funding to meet constitutional standards.
