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Judge Aileen Cannon, a federal judge in Florida, tossed out the indictment alleging that former President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents by removing them from the White House as he left office, taking them to his Mar-a-Lago club. Trump was charged with 40 felony counts in the Florida documents case, not only for removing the documents but also for then allegedly engaging in efforts to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury.
Judge Cannon, who was nominated by Trump, concluded in her 93-page ruling that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the case, was improper, because no statute vested the Attorney General with authority to appoint a Special Counsel like Smith.
Prosecutors said they will appeal Cannon’s decision, stating that “the dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel.” Legal experts have voiced surprise and concern over the decision to dismiss, in one instance noting “A quick look at Cannon's ruling suggests that she engaged in a pretty bizarre form of statutory interpretation to find that they didn't authorize Smith's appointment. There's been a general understanding for decades now ... that this sort of special counsel appointment is perfectly legitimate."
Cannon’s decision is the latest development in legal matters involving the former president, including the U.S. Supreme Court decision in early July which gave him immunity for many of his “official” actions while President. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurrence in that case that Judge Cannon quoted in her own opinion dismissing the Florida documents case.
Cannon’s decision also followed the shooting at Trump’s Butler, PA campaign rally that killed an attendee, critically injured two others, and injured the former president.
Trump faces other criminal cases as well. In May, Trump was found guilty in New York state court of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn actress. He has appealed that jury verdict.
In another case also brought by Special Counsel Smith in federal court in Washington, D.C., Trump was charged in 2023 with four felonies related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In Fulton County, Georgia, Trump and 18 others were charged in August 2023 with a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results.