A judge in the United States has sensationally dismissed the criminal case against former president Donald Trump for allegedly stealing sensitive government documents and storing them, illegally, at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Mr Trump in 2020, issued the ruling on Monday morning, local time, after a petition from the former president’s legal team to have the charges against him dropped.
Judge Cannon said the appointment of a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the case had violated the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution.
“Is there a statute in the United States Code that authorises the appointment of Special Counsel Smith to conduct this prosecution? After careful study of this seminal issue, the answer is no,” she said.
“The bottom line is this: the Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers, and it gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power.”
Judge Cannon said the government had “usurped” that “important legislative authority”.
Judge Aileen Cannon. Picture: AFP
The ruling came as something of a surprise, given the same issue has been litigated in previous cases and, in those cases, the appointment of other special counsels, under the same process, was found to have been legal.
There is no law on America’s books that establishes the role of a special counsel; instead, they are appointed by the nation’s attorney-general – Mr Smith was handed the role by the current Attorney-General, Merrick Garland.
Mr Trump’s team argued before Judge Cannon that the special counsel role should be established by law, and individual appointments should be confirmed by Congress.
