Just two days after Saturday’s failed assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump has dodged another bullet.
On Monday, a district judge dismissed Trump’s classified documents case, citing the illegality of special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment as prosecutor in the matter.
In the 93-page option dismissing the charges, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division, agreed with defense attorneys that Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated statutory authority.
The Superseding Indictment is dismissed because Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution,” the ruling stated.
The Appointments Clause requires that officers be nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. It further differentiates between courts deemed “principal” compared to “inferior” officers, and says that department heads may appoint inferior officers if Congress has passed legislation allowing them to do so.
“Up to this juncture, the Court has proceeded under the premise, advanced by Special Counsel Smith, that he is an ‘inferior Officer,’ not a principal officer requiring Presidential nomination and Senatorial consent,” the ruling further stated. “Defendants and the Meese amici contest this assertion, and it is a point worthy of consideration given the virtually unchecked power given to Special Counsel Smith under the Special Counsel Regulations. Ultimately, however, after examining the broad language in Supreme Court cases on the subject—and seeing a mixed picture, even if a compelling one in favor of a principal designation—the Court elects, with reservations, to reject the principal-officer submission and to leave the matter for review by higher courts.”
In the end, the judge was not able to deem Smith’s appointment as Special Counsel fell within constitutionally defined limits.
“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” the ruling stated. “In the end, there does appear to be a ‘tradition’ of appointing special-attorney-like figures in moments of political scandal throughout the country’s history. But very few, if any, of these figures actually resemble the position of Special Counsel Smith. Mr. Smith is a private citizen exercising the full power of a United States Attorney, and with very little oversight or supervision.”
The case is just one of several that many Trump supporters have long considered to be nothing more than a political means to hurt the former president’s chances of winning the 2024 presidential race. While the verdict is still out on who will reside in the White House after this November’s election, this latest ruling was, indeed, another victory for the Trump team and his supporters throughout the country. It is also a boon for gun owners, who have a more Second Amendment-friendly candidate in Trump over Biden.
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