‘This Finally Gives Jack Smith an Opportunity To Seek her Removal’
Legal experts see path to get Cannon dropped after “unthinkable” ruling to dismiss case
Several prominent legal experts see an opportunity for special counsel Jack Smith to get Judge Aileen Cannon removed after she issued a bombshell decision completely dismiss the case.
Just days after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and on the first day of Trump’s Republican National Convention, Cannon did the “unthinkable,” by dismissing the federal criminal case that the former president illegally hoarded sensitive and classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Florida home and his them from authorities.
The judge, who was appointed by Trump, on Monday dismissed the case against Trump and his co-defendants on the grounds that the appointment of Smith to prosecute the case was unconstitutional.
Cannon agreed with an argument by Trump’s attorneys that Smith’s appointment in the case violated a constitutional provision requiring “Officers of the United States” to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. As has been done with previous special prosecutors, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith without seeking Senate approval for that action.
Trump and co-defendants were charged after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago with a warrant and found that he was keeping key documents in unsecured rooms throughout the estate, which also doubles as a golf resort for members.
Cannon’s decision to dismiss the case was just the ultimate ruling, among many, which favored Trump, who this week is expected to be officially nominated as the Republican candidate for president.
Some of Cannon’s pro-Trump rulings in the matter have been reversed and rebuked by a federal appeals court.
But it’s her dismissal which gives Smith ground to go to those same appeals judges to have Cannon dismissed and the documents case reinstated, according to a number of prominent legal experts.
“Judge Cannon just did the unthinkable: She dismissed the Trump classified documents case on the repeatedly rejected basis that [the Department of Justice] violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause by appointing Special Counsel Smith at all! DOJ must appeal right away,” legal scholar Laurence Tribe posted on social media.
Smith should have a path even at the right-wing US Supreme Court, according to Tribe, who taught at Harvard Law School.
“On SCOTUS, only Justice [Clarence] Thomas took that view in Trump v. United States. This finally gives Jack Smith an opportunity to seek her removal from the case. I think the case for doing so is very strong,” Tribe added, referring to the recent Supreme Court case which established sweeping new immunity from prosecution for US presidents.
Joyce Vance, a US attorney during the Obama administration, agreed with Tribe’s view.
“This was the argument advanced by Justice Thomas in his concurrence in Trump v. US, which no other Justice signed into at the time,” she posted.
Barb McQuade, also an Obama-era US attorney, agreed, as well although Smith’s necessary appeal only adds more time before Trump and the others could be tried.
“Dismissal of Trump documents case may actually be good news for Jack Smith, who can now immediately appeal to 11th Circuit and ask for case to be reassigned to a new judge. But more delay …” she wrote in a social media post.
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