Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, dismissed the criminal case against him on charges of mishandling top-secret documents and ruled that special prosecutor Jack Smith was illegally appointed.
Cannon said Smith's appointment was improper and dismissed the case. The case was one of the strongest and most dangerous legal threats facing Trump ahead of his 2024 US election campaign, he reported. Al Jazeera.
“Former President Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment based on the unlawful appointment and funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith is GRANTED,” the judge wrote in her order.
The order also said: “The superseding indictment is DISMISSED because the appointment of Special Prosecutor Smith violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.”
Cannon's decision came after Trump's lawyers requested partial proceedings to evaluate a Supreme Court ruling that grants former presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
The attorneys further argued that Smith's appointment was invalid and violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. They also claimed that his office was funded by the Department of Justice, according to Al Jazeera.
Trump, fresh off surviving an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, wrote on his Truth Social platform after the ruling that: “This dismissal of the lawless Florida indictment should be just the first step, quickly followed by the dismissal of ALL witch hunts.”
The Florida case had 31 counts of “intentionally withholding national defense information,” and each count could have resulted in up to 10 years in prison for Trump.
