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As strange as it may sound, everybody can be happy with US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to toss out the criminal case alleging that Donald Trump hoarded classified documents after his presidency.
Cannon, who was appointed by Trump and has consistently ruled in his favor, dismissed the criminal charges on the basis that special counsel Jack Smith was not lawfully appointed.
“The bottom line is this: The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers, and it gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers,” Cannon wrote in her ruling.
“The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps that important legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers,” she added.
Obviously, this is a win for the former president because, for now, this is one fewer criminal case he has to worry about.
Since he has also effectively stalled the coup-related cases in Washington, DC, and Georgia, it seems highly unlikely that he will go on trial again this year.
And, since all of these cases are widely viewed as more consequential than the one in which Trump was convicted of a felony earlier this year, he has escaped accountability for the time being.
However, the ruling, in some ways, should also be welcome news for Smith and those who think the former president should be held responsible for attempting a coup.
They have felt from the beginning that the Trump-appointed Cannon was biased, and this gives the government a chance to take this matter to another court and try to get another judge.
“Judge Cannon just did the unthinkable: She dismissed the Trump classified documents case on the repeatedly rejected basis that DOJ violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause by appointing Special Counsel Smith at all! DOJ must appeal right away,” stated legal scholar Laurence Tribe. “On [the Supreme Court], only Justice Thomas took that view in Trump v. United States. This finally gives Jack Smith an opportunity to seek her removal from the case. I think the case for doing so is very strong.”
Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called the decision “lawless,” and “deeply dangerous for accountability and checks and balances going forward,” adding that it had “no basis in statute or case law.”
Others also pointed to the timing of the decision, i.e., on the first workday following an attempted assassination of Trump, as well as the start of the Republican National Convention.
Republicans, on the other hand, were elated.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) tweeted a photo of Cannon with the caption “Future Supreme Court Justice Cannon.”
