Classified Documents Indictment Against Trump Dismissed by Florida Judge
WASHINGTON — A Florida federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal charges against former President Donald Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents for his personal use.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon announced the dismissal only hours before the opening of the Republican National Convention, thereby clearing away some of the objections fellow Republicans held against Trump running for reelection as president.
She said the appointment of the special counsel who filed 40 felony charges against Trump was unconstitutional.
Special Counsel Jack Smith was a private lawyer appointed by the U.S. attorney general but with no approval by Congress.
“The superseding indictment is DISMISSED because Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the appointments clause of the United States Constitution,” wrote Cannon.
Cannon’s ruling appears to be an outlier for special counsel appointments, according to legal analysts.
Special counsels have been used by the Justice Department for decades and been upheld as constitutional by other federal courts. They included the 1974 Supreme Court case that forced former President Richard Nixon to turn over documents and recordings related to the Watergate scandal.
“None of the statutes cited as legal authority for the appointment … gives the attorney general broad inferior-officer appointing power or bestows upon him the right to appoint a federal officer with the kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith,” Cannon wrote. “Nor do the special counsel’s strained statutory arguments, appeals to inconsistent history, or reliance on out-of-circuit authority persuade otherwise.”
The Florida criminal case resulted from Trump’s departure from the White House in 2021. He and his aides took a large number of presidential records with them to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Storage of such classified records is subject to procedures required by the Presidential Records Act.
After whistleblower reports from Trump associates, the National Archives and Records Administration took legal action to retrieve the records, some of which were piled up in boxes in a bathroom.
On May 11, 2022, the Justice Department sent Trump a grand jury subpoena asking him to return classified documents. After Justice Department officials said they felt Trump had not completely complied, FBI agents with a search warrant searched the Mar-a-Lago residence on Aug. 8, 2022.
They seized more than 100 documents, some of which were supposed to be treated with the highest levels of secrecy. They included information on the technology used for nuclear submarines and a potential invasion strategy against Iran.
The documents they seized led U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint Smith as special counsel to lead the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents as well as his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The June 8, 2023, grand jury indictment in the classified documents case marked the first time in American history a serving or former president was indicted on a federal criminal charge.
Trump already has been convicted on felony charges in New York for falsifying business records to cover up his sexual affairs with two women. He continues to face charges in Georgia for trying to illegally overturn the state’s election process when he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
After the dismissal of charges in Florida Monday, Trump posted a message on the Truth Social media site calling the charges against him “witch hunts.”
“The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these political attacks, which are an election interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s political opponent, ME,” Trump wote.
The Florida judge’s ruling leaves open a possibility the Justice Department could appeal. It nearly guarantees any final judgment would be made after the November election.
The ruling was announced two days after Trump was shot through the ear by an attempted assassin and hours before he won the nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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