A Florida judge on Monday dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, ruling in a blockbuster decision that special counsel Jack Smith didn't have the authority to handle the prosecution.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon handed down 93-page order hours before the Republican National Convention to nominate Trump to challenge President Joe Biden was set to begin in Milwaukee.
"The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers," Cannon wrote. "That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere — whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not."
A spokesman for Smith didn't immediately return a request for comment, the Associated Press said, but he's virtually guaranteed to appeal the ruling.
In a post on his social media website, Trump said Cannon's ruling "should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts" against him, referring to the other criminal and civil prosecutions either recently resolved or still pending against him.
They include his conviction in the Stormy Daniels "hush money" case, another Smith-led prosecution involving the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and a racketeering case in Georgia over efforts to reverse the 2020 election results there.
Trump also repeated his unfounded claim that the "Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden's Political Opponent, ME."
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in November 2022 to oversee Justice Department investigations of Trump that included allegations he illegally hoarded classfied documents from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, and stymied government efforts to retrieve them.
Garland's move came days before the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit unanimously reversed a ruling in which Cannon appointed a special master to review the thousands of documents seized by the FBI in August 2022.
The following year, Smith obtained a grand jury indictment that charged Trump with willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and related offenses.
Trump aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira were charged as codefendants and were also covered by Cannon's ruling Monday.
Critics have accused Cannon, who was nominated by Trump, of slow-walking the case to his benefit by entertaining defense arguments that most judges would have dismissed without hearings.
In May, Cannon postponed the trial date indefinitely to deal with a number of unresolved legal issues.
During hearings last month, Smith's team challenged defense assertions that his appointment violated the Constitution because he wasn't confrmed by Congress and that his office was being improperly funded by the Justice Department instead of through congressional appropriations.
Prosecutors also noted that other judges had rejected similar claims in other cases and said that even if Cannon agreed with Trump's lawyers, it would be improper to dismiss the case against Trump.
In Monday's decision, Cannon called the prosecution arguments "strained" and said the U.S. Code didn't authorize Smith to pursue the case.
