(UnitedVoice.com) – In 2023, special counsel Jack Smith charged former President Donald Trump with 40 federal crimes related to the storage of classified documents at his home in Florida. The case was assigned to US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee for the US District of Southern Florida. The judge recently sent shockwaves across the nation.
On July 15, Cannon dismissed the special counsel’s entire case. The judge ruled that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Smith was unconstitutional. She determined it violated the appointment clause of the Constitution which grants Congress the authority to confirm nominations. Additionally, the judge argued lawmakers hold the power to approve the Department of Justice’s expenditures.
Trump celebrated the decision by calling on the prosecutors in his other cases to drop the charges against him as well. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) called the decision good for the country.
Legal experts and Democrats decried the decision, saying the judge failed to follow previous Supreme Court precedent. Others said Cannon would likely be thrown off of the case. Ben Meiselas, an anti-Trump lawyer, told The MeidasTouch Podcast that he thinks she will be removed from presiding over the case. He pointed out that Democratic and Republican presidents have appointed special counsels and that he thinks Smith will ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove Cannon.
Conservative legal expert Jonathan Turley called Cannon’s decision a “seismic ruling” because this case “was the greatest threat to Trump.” He argued that the other cases against the former POTUS “have constitutional and statutory problems,” and those problems have increased over the last year in the wake of other rulings by the US Supreme Court.
Smith has not asked the appeals court to remove the judge but has made it clear that he intends to appeal the ruling. Legal experts believe the case will eventually make it to the Supreme Court.
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