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U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon on Monday dismissed a classified documents lawsuit against former President Donald Trump over the way he appointed special counsel Jack Smith.
“Because the appointment of Special Counsel Smith violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, the indictment is dismissed,” wrote Cannon, who was appointed to the judge by a former president. He said the Constitution gives only Congress or the president the power to appoint a special counsel, not the U.S. attorney general.

Smith disputed that argument, and other federal courts have upheld the constitutionality of special counsel, but Cannon’s ruling adds months to the litigation, even if it is likely to be appealed.
“None of the statutes cited as the legal basis for the appointments give the Attorney General broad powers to appoint lower-level officials or to appoint federal officials with the prosecutorial powers exercised by Special Counsel Smith,” Cannon wrote. “Neither the Special Counsel’s heavy-handed statutory arguments, appeals to contradictory history, nor reliance on extracircuit authority persuades us otherwise.”

Her opinion largely follows the logic outlined in a recent concurring opinion by conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a separate case against President Trump.
The special counsel’s central allegation was that Trump took classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, stored them in unsecured rooms, including a ballroom and a bathroom, and refused to return them to the government.
A spokesman for Smith said the Justice Department had granted the special counsel a right of appeal, which would be heard by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The dismissal of this case departs from the uniform conclusion of every court to date that has considered the question of whether the attorney general has the legal authority to appoint a special counsel,” spokesman Peter Carr said.
Trump praised the dismissal and called for all other cases against him to be dropped, including criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“The dismissal of this lawless indictment in Florida should be just the first step as we move forward toward national unity after Saturday’s horrific events,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The Democratic Department of Justice coordinated all of these political attacks, a conspiracy to interfere in the election against Joe Biden’s political opponent in the state of Maine.”
Trump’s lawyers for the case declined further comment, and the Justice Department had no immediate comment on the dismissal of the lawsuit.