Federal judge dismisses Trump classified documents case over concerns with prosecutor’s appointment

Trump faced dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. A federal judge is set to hear arguments on whether to dismiss the classified documents prosecution of Donald Trump. His lawyers say the former president was entitled under the Presidential Records Act to keep the sensitive documents with him when he left the White House and headed to Florida.

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. (Justice Department via AP)

The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case of former President Donald Trump in Florida dismissed the prosecution on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon brings a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats that the Republican former president confronted. Trump faced dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.

Defense lawyers filed multiple challenges to the case, including a legally technical one that asserted that special counsel Jack Smith had been illegally appointed under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which governs the appointment of certain government positions, and that his office was improperly funded by the Justice Department.

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

Cannon, whose handling of the case had drawn scrutiny since before the charges were even filed, agreed, writing in a 93-page order: “The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers. 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.”

Smith’s team had vigorously contested the argument during hearings before Cannon last month and told Cannon that even if ruled in the defense team’s favor, the proper correction would not be to dismiss the entire case.

A spokesman for the Smith team did not immediately return a request seeking comment, and the Trump team did not immediately have a comment.

____

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

Get daily updates from WHYY News!

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal