Judge Aileen Cannon has just dramatically dismissed the Democrats’ classified documents case against President Donald Trump in Florida, ruling that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment violated the U.S. Constitution.
The case was tossed out by the federal judge in Florida on Monday, eliminating one of Trump’s biggest legal liabilities just 113 days before the November 5 election.
Judge Cannon dismissed the case against the Republican presidential candidate, which was widely viewed as the most serious of four criminal cases he faces.
It was dismissed on the grounds that Smith’s appointment by Democrat President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) was unconstitutional.
“I am thrilled that a judge had the courage and wisdom to do this,” Trump told Fox News in an interview moments after the ruling.
“This has big, big implications not just for this case but for other cases.
“The special counsel worked with everybody to try to take me down.
“This is a big, big deal. It only makes the convention more positive — this will be an amazing week.”
Trump, 78, was facing up to 450 years in prison if convicted on all counts in the politically motivated case.
The ex-president was accused of hoarding troves of confidential documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after he left office and then attempting to cover it up.
Cannon ruled that Congress was required to appoint “constitutional officers” and the legislature was also needed to approve spending for such a prosecution.
“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,” Cannon wrote.
The judge wrote that “Special Counsel Smith’s investigation has unlawfully drawn funds from the Indefinite Appropriation.”
“The Special Counsel’s office has spent tens of millions of dollars since November 2022, all drawn unconstitutionally from the Indefinite Appropriation,” Cannon wrote.
“For more than 18 months, Special Counsel Smith’s investigation and prosecution has been financed by substantial funds drawn from the Treasury without statutory authorization, and to try to rewrite history at this point seems near impossible.
“The Court has difficulty seeing how a remedy short of dismissal would cure this substantial separation-of-powers violation, but the answers are not entirely self-evident, and the caselaw is not well developed.”
In her decision, the Trump-appointed federal judge cited Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ July 1 dissent in a ruling on presidential immunity.
Thomas suggested the special counsel appointment could be unconstitutional.
Trump and his valet Walt Nauta were indicted in the classified records case in June 2023 following a dramatic FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022.
Smith is also the prosecutor in the second federal case against Trump for challenging the results of the 2020 election, meaning that Cannon’s ruling is likely to reverberate in the courts.
That case is being overseen by Obama-appointed federal Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington.
Trump has noted that Chutkan has a bias against him.
Trump also faces state election charges in Georgia on election-related counts, though it is unclear when or if that case will go to trial due to defense challenges to the role of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat who previously hired her romantic partner Nathan Wade as lead prosecutor.
The 45th president was convicted in the final case against him on May 30 on 34 New York state charges for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal 2016 “hush money” payments.
Trump has not yet been sentenced in that case and is vowing to appeal.
In a remarkable coincidence just hours before Cannon’s ruling, Trump told The Post’s Michael Goodwin that “we hear” that President Biden and the DOJ — rather than the judge — would be dropping the case.
Trump also said additional federal charges related to the 2020 election would also be dropped.
It comes after the failed assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday.
